Kondraty Fedorovich Ryleev (1795 - 1826) - poet, Decembrist.
In 1801, according to the instructions of his mother in the biography of Ryleev, he entered the first cadet corps of St. Petersburg. It is here that the desire for creativity appears, the first poems of Ryleev. For example, "Kulakiyada".
In 1814, having become an officer, he went on a campaign with the Russian army to France and Switzerland. In 1818, in the biography of Kondraty Fedorovich Ryleev, his service ends and he resigns. Two years later he marries Natalya Tevyashina and settles in St. Petersburg. On this life stage Ryleev’s creativity blossoms, his poems, as well as short articles, are published. In 1821, the poet was elected to the position of assessor of the criminal chamber, and three years later he got a job in a Russian-American company.
Literary meetings held in the poet’s house gave rise to the idea of publishing an almanac annually. After this, “Polar Star” was published three years in a row. At the same time, new works by Ryleev were published: “Dumas”, “Voinarovsky”.
In 1823, the poet became a member of the revolutionary Northern Society, which he headed a year later. This democratic association held its meetings in Ryleev’s house. Then he transferred the powers of the board to Trubetskoy, but was still on Senate Square December 14 during the uprising.
The very next day, in the biography of Kondraty Ryleev, an arrest occurred. Ryleev wrote poetry even in prison. Having pleaded guilty, he received a death sentence. For Ryleev, death, prescribed by quartering, was later replaced by hanging. He regarded his works not as literary creativity, but as a civic duty, which significantly distinguishes Ryleev’s biography from other poets of his era.
Kondraty Fedorovich Ryleevtakesthe most prominent placeamong political and literary figures Decembrist movement .
Kondraty Ryleev was born29 September 1795 in the village of Batov, Sofia district, Petersburg province. Ryleev received his education in the first St. Petersburg cadet corps, where his inclination towards verbal sciences was already evident. The future poet was seventeen years old when the Patriotic War began, which had a huge impact on his ideological development.
Inspired by patriotic feelings, young Ryleev wrote his first works - odes “To the Destruction of Enemies” and “Love for the Fatherland,” dedicated to the commander-in-chief of the Russian army, Kutuzov, who died in 1813:
Praise, savior of the fatherland!
Praise, praise, son of the fatherland!
Destroyer of villainous plans,
A loyal citizen of Russia,
And the scourge and horror of all the French! —
You died in body Kutuzov,
But you will live forever a hero -
And will be glorious in future centuries,
And the evil enemy will not dare,
Disturb the peace of Russia!..
Literary fame was brought to Ryleev by his satire “To the Temporary Worker,” published in the Nevsky Spectator in 1820. This satire was at the same time the beginning of Ryleev’s revolutionary activity. In the image of an “arrogant temporary worker,” “insidious and vile,” contemporaries recognized Arakcheev, the all-powerful favorite of Alexander I, the organizer of “military settlements.” The exceptional topicality of Ryleev’s satire was due to the tense political situation - domestic and international. At this time events unfolded spanish revolution, and in the fall of 1820, on the eve of the appearance of satire, an uprising of the Semenovsky Life Guards Regiment took place in St. Petersburg.
Since 1820, Kondraty Ryleev has been collaborating in leading St. Petersburg magazines and joining literary organizations. In April 1821, he was elected a member of the Free Society of Lovers of Russian Literature, led by F.N. Glinka. Here Ryleev’s literary and political education was completed, and he rose to the ranks of the most important and active participants in the Society.
Every year, Ryleev’s literary and political connections expanded more and more. He became close to Gnedich, whom he considered his leader in the field civic poetry, met one of the major figures of Decembrism N.I. Turgenev, became friendly with Bestuzhev and Pushchin. Bestuzhev soon became like-minded with Ryleev in revolutionary and literary work; Together with him, Ryleev published the almanac “Polar Star” (1823-1825). Pushchin was Ryleev’s colleague in the St. Petersburg chamber of the criminal court for more than a year; He also introduced Ryleev into the Northern Secret Society.
Ryleev was friendly with Baratynsky (whose poems he was going to publish), Delvig, Vyazemsky, Pushkin, whom he met in St. Petersburg even before Pushkin was deported to the south. Ryleev did not have to meet with Pushkin after 1820, but they corresponded, especially intensively in 1825.Kondraty Ryleevmet and became close friends with the great Polish poet Mickiewicz, who was exiled in 1825 by order of the tsarist government from Poland to St. Petersburg for service.
In the Northern Secret Society, which Ryleev joined in October 1823, he immediately occupied a prominent position. At this time, the main attention of the Society's members was focused on discussing and criticizing Nikita Muravyov's draft constitution, which provided for the strong executive and military power of the emperor, as well as a very high property qualification for voters.
Together with Bestuzhev, Ryleev wrote propaganda songs, which were one of the earliest experiments in revolutionary propaganda literature in Russia. “The slavery of the people, the severity of oppression, the miserable life of a soldier were depicted in them in simple words, but in true colors,” the Decembrist Bestuzhev recalled about these propaganda songs. The songs of Ryleev and Bestuzhev were based on forms of peasant, soldier and bourgeois folklore, filling them with politically relevant themes. One of best songs“Oh, I feel sick” was written to the voice of the widely popular romance by Neledinsky-Meletsky. In simple words, this song spoke about the trade in serfs, “like cattle,” about excessive taxes, about the corruption of the court and the clergy. Another wonderful song, “As the blacksmith walked,” was written to the voice of the “sub-blind” songs, which spoke of “knives” “on the boyars, on the nobles,” “on the priests, on the saints,” and on the tsar.
Ryleev takes a new road in the poem “Voinarovsky”. Ryleev’s teacher in this poem was Pushkin: from him Ryleev, by his own admission, learned poetic language.
“Voinarovsky” is a poem from the historical past of Ukraine. The hero of the poem is Mazepa’s nephew and a close participant in his conspiracy against Peter I. After Mazepa’s death, Voinarovsky fled abroad, but was then handed over to the Russian government and exiled to the Yakut region. The poem is set in the 30s of the 18th century. The historian Miller, traveling through Siberia, met the exiled Voinarovsky near Yakutsk, and he told him about his life, about Mazepa and about his participation in the conspiracy.
Ryleyev called the traitor and traitor Mazepa “a great hypocrite, hiding evil intentions under the desire for the good of the homeland.” The story of Voinarovsky, as depicted by Ryleev, is the story of a noble and ardent young man who sincerely believed in Mazepa and was seduced by him into the path of treason.
In the history of the Russian revolutionary movement, Ryleev’s influence was felt with exceptional force. His poems were quoted in the revolutionary press and included in publications of illegal works.
“Message to Bestuzhev”:
You and I are brothers in spirit,
We both believe in redemption,
And we will feed until the grave
Enmity towards the scourges of my native country.
.............
Love for the holy truth
In you, I know, the heart beats,
And, I believe, he will respond immediately
To my incorruptible voice.
feb-web.ru ›feb/irl/il0/il6/Il6-0772.htm
Prison is an honor to me, not a reproach,
I am in it for a righteous cause,
And should I be ashamed of these chains,
If I wear them for the Fatherland.
1826
The originality of Decembrist poetry is most purposefully and fully represented in the works of K. F. Ryleev (1795-1826).
Ryleev began as an imitator of Zhukovsky and Batyushkov and did not escape his passion for light poetry. His early poetic experiments - love elegies, friendly messages, charades and inscriptions - are not very original. The first poem that attracted everyone's attention was his famous satire “To the Temporary Worker” (1820), directed against the then omnipotent Arakcheev.
The portrait of the “temporary worker” was so accurate and scary that Arakcheev chose not to recognize himself. This is the only reason why satire was able to appear in print. The poem contained a direct political threat. Ryleev called for action, for the destruction of the temporary worker. Only a new Brutus or Cato can save the country from the “evil fate”, and the poet openly declared that he would be happy to “glorify on the lyre” this new hero.
The enormous political courage of Ryleev’s first speech revealed in him a future revolutionary. He formulates his political credo in the poems “A. P. Ermolov" (1821), "Alexander I" (1821), "Vision" ("Ode on the name day of Grand Duke Alexander Nikolaevich", 1823) and in the ode dedicated to A.S. Mordvinov "Civil Courage" (1823).
As addressees, Ryleev chooses kings (present and future) and politicians, i.e. persons who, by their position, can contribute to the “public good”. This reveals the civic spirit of Ryleev’s poems, not yet a member secret society, but already a potential Decembrist. The political doctrine of his first civil poems is associated with the ideas of the 18th century Enlightenment. - concern for enlightenment, “common benefit”, “sacredness of the law”.
With the traditions of the 18th century. The idea of an enlightened monarch is also connected. To learn to be a king, you must first of all “respect the rule of law.” The need to uphold the law central point Ode "Civil Courage". The oratorical pathos of the ode and the program of civic virtues set out in it affirmed the image of an ideal public figure.
The message to Ermolov reflects the general mood of the advanced circles, which were following the outbreaks with excitement liberation movement in Greece and Spain, when it seemed that revolutionary wave rolled up to the borders of Russia. The same thing is implied by Ryleev’s poetic formula “the purpose of the century,” which acquires phraseological stability in his work. The “destination of the century” is the desire for freedom.
In the message to “Alexander I” and in the “Vision” this is the liberation tendency of the century in general; in “Citizen” (1824) it is already associated with practical participation in the revolutionary struggle. Despite the moderation of the political program of Ryleev’s first civic poems, their propaganda value was great.
It consisted already in the very fact of bringing to the fore the civil idea, in their general trend finally, in civic, patriotic vocabulary and phraseology, which created the lyrical tone of the poems and embodied their main emotional theme: love of freedom, protest against oppression.
In Ryleev’s first poems, his oppositional sentiments and commitment to the civic traditions of Russian poetry were already evident. The latter is pointedly emphasized by his attitude towards Gnedich. In 1821, Ryleev addressed Gnedich with a message, and a year later he dedicated his programmatic thought “Derzhavin” to him.
Both poems are thematically related to famous speech Gnedich “On the appointment of a poet,” delivered at the “Free Society of Lovers of Russian Literature” on June 13, 1821. This speech was a clear declaration of the literary principles of Decembrism. It was based on the idea of high civic poetry, designed to raise the spirit of the modern young generation.
In the message to Gnedich, a generalized image of a poet-citizen appears for the first time in Ryleev’s lyrics. In the Derzhavin Duma, this image unfolds as the image of a poet-tribune, a champion of freedom and truth: “He placed the public good above all other goods in the world.”
The real appearance of the poet Derzhavin did not entirely correspond to this characteristic. But it fully corresponded to the ideological and creative aspirations of Ryleev himself, very accurately characterized in his now famous verse: “I am not a poet, but a citizen” (“A. A. Bestuzhev”, 1825).
The openly and more than once stated civil, political pathos of Ryleev’s poetry is also determined by its genre originality. First using the traditional genres of classicism (ode, epistle, satire), Ryleev updates their themes and stylistic structure. Then he creates a poetic cycle that is completely original in its genre outlines, called by the poet himself “Thoughts”.
This is what songs were called in Ukrainian folklore historical content. According to Ryleev’s plan, his own thoughts were to become their likeness. But before that, a similar attempt was made by the Polish poet Nemtsevich, whom Ryleev called his predecessor.
Ryleev's Dumas were written during 1821-1823, published separately in various magazines and almanacs of the same years, and in 1825 they were published as a separate edition.
All of Ryleev’s thoughts are subordinated to one task: to show to his contemporaries instructive examples of the civic virtues of their “ancestors” - famous figures national history. Among them Old Russian princes, Ermak, Bogdan Khmelnitsky, Boris Godunov and Peter I, associates of Peter, etc.
Some thoughts are written in the form of a lyrical monologue of a historical hero, others - in the form of a lyrical author's memoir about his glorious deeds. One of them - “The Death of Ermak” - became the famous folk song “The storm roared, the rain made noise.”
Ryleev does not seek to objectively depict individual episodes of Russian history or show the formation of national character. Its task is to provide examples of civic and patriotic valor using historical examples. The historical plot is subordinated to the political tasks of our time and is full of allusions. Heroes express their thoughts political program poet.
Olga’s instructions to Svyatoslav (“Olga at Igor’s grave”) coincide with Catherine II’s instructions to the heir in the ode “Vision”: the monarch must be a father to his subjects, and “injustice of power” leads to national disasters and the death of the ruler. Descendants condemn Igor, despite his military valor, because he was driven not by the desire for the glory of the fatherland, but by “greed for gold.”
On the contrary, “holy wisdom” and the correctness of the government soften the sentence of contemporaries and posterity to Boris Godunov. He is a “sufferer”, “unfortunate”, worthy not only of curses, but also of blessings. Even a crime (the murder of Tsarevich Dmitry) is atoned for by the ruler’s concern for the public good, for the welfare of the people.
For Ryleev, it is not so much this or that historical episode that is important, but the hero’s behavior under certain conditions. Hence there are sometimes contradictions in the assessment of some historical events, as well as the characters of historical figures. In the Duma “Peter the Great in Ostrogozhsk” Mazepa is a potential traitor, an insidious hypocrite, an enemy of Peter and Russia. In the poem “Voinarovsky” its hero, Mazepa’s comrade-in-arms, is shown as a defender of the people and homeland.
Thus, the Dumas openly serve the purpose of agitation. No wonder in critical reviews the word “goal” appears so often on them. Ryleev chose “the goal of inspiring the valor of his fellow citizens with the exploits of his ancestors,” A. Bestuzhev wrote about them. Vyazemsky saw “goal” and “intention” as an indispensable condition for poetic maturity. And this same word “goal” was repeated by Pushkin: “Ryleev’s thoughts are aiming, but everything is out of place.”
The search for ways to actively influence society led Ryleev to a romantic poem of the Byronic sense. Ryleev’s first and only completed poem “Voinarovsky” (1823-1824) was preceded by a resounding success “ Caucasian prisoner"(1820-1821) Pushkin.
This success showed that the genre of the romantic poem was in tune artistic needs era. Ryleev approached this new poetic genre for Russian poetry already in “Dumas”. They have already revealed the tendencies characteristic of a romantic poem towards constructing a lyrical narrative, centered around the personality of the hero, his internal experiences, which dominate the action, color the plot and the very setting of the story and, at the same time, through emotional identification, seem to become a lyrical expression inner life poet.
19 At the same time, “Dumas” are also associated with the poetics of classicism (oratorical pathos, “high” vocabulary, edification). Turning to a romantic poem and consciously starting from its Pushkin model, Ryleev is looking for an independent creative path. He contrasted the disappointed hero of Byron and Pushkin with a suffering citizen, a fighter against tyranny for the rights of the people.
The historical Voinarovsky and Mazepa did not correspond to their images created by Ryleev, as is directly stated in the essays preceding the poem (written by A. A. Bestuzhev and A. O. Kornilovich).
The patriotism of Voinarovsky and Mazepa, their fiery speeches were an expression of the feelings of the author of the poem, and much more artistically perfect than in “Thoughts”. Pushkin could accept the obsessive didacticism, compositional monotony and anti-historicism of thoughts, but after “Voinarovsky” he wrote: “I put up with Ryleev - Voinarovsky is full of life”; “...his style has matured and is becoming truly narrative, which we almost don’t yet have.”
The canons of a romantic poem required the inclusion of local color and customs. Following Pushkin, Ryleev strives for accuracy of descriptions. Already in the Duma “Ivan Susanin” Ryleev, instead of a conventional Ossianic landscape, gave specific details of peasant life.
In Voinarovsky, the description of nature is also realistic and naturally includes signs of local color - a description of the life of distant Siberia. The theme of nature in the poem has an independent meaning and, just like the plot action, carries a civic load.
This is the first attempt in Russian literature to describe the “place” and “mores” of a terrible land, the involuntary place of residence of many generations of Russian freedom lovers, a land where characters were broken, hopes were crushed, faith in oneself and people was lost.
“Voinarovsky” was completed in the first half of 1824. At this time, Ryleev was already one of the leaders of the Northern Society. At a meeting in December 1823, he made a proposal to create propaganda literature. The constitutional aspirations expressed in the first civil verses are a thing of the past.
Leader's enthusiasm political activity Ryleev, his republican beliefs, practical suggestions- all this finds a way out in poetic creativity.
In Voinarovsky, Ryleev had to bring history up to date and idealize the leaders of the anti-people movement. But in his next plans, Ryleev directly addresses liberation struggle Ukrainian people against Polish rule in late XVI V.
Of all the unrealized plans of Ryleev in 1824-1825 related to this topic (the poems “Mazepa” and “Nalivaiko”, the tragedies “Mazepa” and “Bogdan Khmelnitsky”), the poem “Nalivaiko” is most fully represented by surviving handwritten sketches and printed fragments.
13 passages and the program of the poem allow us to judge that Ryleev conceived the poem as a broad epic canvas depicting the life and customs of Ukraine, warring religious groups, the oppression of Ukrainian peasants by the Poles, and finally, popular uprising.
Ryleev introduces a new hero into the romantic poem - the leader of the Cossack freemen. The love plot, mandatory in a romantic poem, is excluded completely, giving way to a heroic plot - a big one. tragic event national history. “Voinarovsky” is still compositionally connected with thoughts.
The main part of the poem (after the narrative exposition) was structured as a monologue of the hero, thus all events were refracted through his perception. In “Nalivaiko” Ryleev strives for greater objectivity of the image: the monologue is interspersed with the author’s narration, and the narration predominates.
At the same time, this poem, more than any other work, is associated with practical activities Ryleev the revolutionary. Woinarovsky is shown as a hero expelled from public life, deprived of the opportunity to act. Nalivaiko is the leader of the uprising and is depicted at the moment of highest political activity.
His image absorbed the emotional mood of the Decembrists in the period before the uprising, their readiness to fight and at the same time hesitation and uncertainty about success. In the famous “Confession”, known to several generations of revolutionaries, Nalivaiko speaks of the inevitable death of those who “are the first to rise up against the oppressors of the people.”
The psychological analogy was so accurate that Ryleev’s friends in Nalivaiko’s monologue heard a prediction of their own fate, and Ryleev repeated Nalivaiko’s words in a conversation with N. Bestuzhev as own belief: “Believe me, that every day convinces me of the necessity of my actions, of the future destruction with which we must buy our first attempt for the freedom of Russia, and at the same time of the need for an example to awaken the sleeping Russians.”
Even such an episode outlined in the program of the poem - “he can run, but does not want to” - corresponded to the behavior of some Decembrists after the defeat of the uprising. So, having learned that the arrests of his comrades had begun, Ryleev’s friend Alexander Bestuzhev did not want to run away and came to the Winter Palace himself.
In the program of the poem, Nalivaiko becomes hetman as a result of a popular uprising. The people act as real strength history, but the uprising had to end in defeat. Another solution social conflict was outlined in Ryleev’s tragedy “Bogdan Khmelnitsky”. The uprising, which was led by Bohdan Khmelnytsky, led to the liberation of the Ukrainian people from the political and religious oppression of Poland.
The recognition of the people as the real force of history gave rise to satirical propaganda songs by Ryleev and Bestuzhev, addressed to the people.
A satirical song, a parody song, is a common phenomenon at this time. Suffice it to recall Pushkin’s Noel (“Hurray, he’s galloping to Russia”), which, according to the Decembrists, “was sung almost in the street.” We have reached 12 songs written by Ryleev and Bestuzhev, sometimes, apparently, in collaboration with other Decembrists. The propaganda significance of these songs was recognized even by the Supreme Court: their composition was blamed on the authors along with attempted regicide.
The imitation of peasant or soldier folk songs was lively, exciting, accessible to the masses, and therefore effective journalism. The songs express a specific idea of national disasters. It talked about the lack of rights of the people, about bribery in the courts, about royal exactions, senseless marching in the army and about the fact that people are traded “like cattle.”
Including in the daring motif a story about palace coups, about the overthrow of Peter III and the “snub-nosed villain” Paul I, the songs inspired the idea of the need to destroy the royal family in the name of the interests of the coming revolution.
Of course, the Decembrists, including Ryleev, remained in the position of noble revolutionism and did not intend to involve the people in the uprising, but they sought to convey their program and slogans to the masses. The search for an intelligible form and a common language with the people was characteristic of Ryleev, the leader of a secret society, poet and citizen.
The civic position of Ryleev as a fighter is most clearly expressed in the poem “Will I be at the fatal time,” written shortly before the uprising. Ryleev branded the civic failure of those contemporaries who have not comprehended the “destiny of the century” and stand aloof from the social struggle.
The “pampered tribe of degenerate Slavs,” so unlike the heroes of the thoughts, is opposed by the voice of the author, a courageous and passionate man, who with his life proved the right to denounce his contemporaries.
The last three poems were written by Ryleev already in the Alekseevsky ravelin of the Peter and Paul Fortress, when Ryleev himself found himself in the situation that he so often chose for his heroes. In one of them (“I feel sick here, as if in a foreign land,” 1826), the motif of doom (no longer as a premonition, but as an expectation of death) is combined with humility and repentance.
This is a consequence of the depression that took possession of him at the beginning of the investigation. But in last poem(“Oh dear friend, how clear is your voice”, 1826) through its biblical coloring one can see the very moods that the poet endowed with his heroes - Mikhail Tverskoy, Artamon Matveev, Nalivaiko.
The motive of sacrifice is combined with historical optimism and the consciousness that the struggle and death of the author of the poem will not be in vain. Further history revolutionary struggle confirmed the vitality of Ryleev’s cause, and his poetry turned out to be significant for the subsequent history of Russian literature.
History of Russian literature: in 4 volumes / Edited by N.I. Prutskov and others - L., 1980-1983.
In the reader's mind, Ryleev is, first of all, a Decembrist poet, publisher of the almanac "Polar Star", a noble revolutionary, a man martyrdom confirmed loyalty to freedom-loving ideals.
Biography of Kondraty Ryleev
K. F. Ryleev was born on September 18 (29), 1795 in the village of Batovo, near St. Petersburg, into a family retired lieutenant colonel, and from the age of six was brought up in the St. Petersburg Cadet Corps. Here he fell in love with books and began to write. Thirteen years passed in classes and drills, not without childhood pranks, of course, but also with severe retribution for them. Ryleev's popularity was greatly contributed to by his poems.
Ryleev's youth coincided with a heroic era in the life of Russia, with the glorious year of twelve. He passionately awaited his release into the active army and sang “victory songs for heroes,” remembering the heroic past of his homeland. Already in the first attempts of Ryleev's pen, themes and poetic principles were outlined that he would remain faithful to forever. In 1814, as an eighteen-year-old warrant officer-artilleryman, Ryleev entered the theater of military operations. One can only guess how stunning the contrast was between thirteen years of imprisonment within the walls of the building - and foreign campaigns, when in two years Ryleev walked the whole of Europe twice.
Then came everyday life in the army. Ryleev's artillery company moved from Lithuania to the Oryol region until in the spring of 1817 it settled in Voronezh province, in the village of Podgorny, Ostrogozhsky district. Here Ryleev began raising the daughters of a local landowner and soon fell in love with the youngest of them, Natalya Tevyashova. Ryleev, having married and retired, rushes to the capital - where life is in full swing. In the fall of 1820, Ryleev, his wife and daughter settled in St. Petersburg, and from the beginning of 1821 he began serving in the St. Petersburg Chamber of Criminal Court.
Creativity of Kondraty Ryleev
Ryleev's poems have already appeared in St. Petersburg magazines. The satire on Arakcheev made the poet’s name widely known overnight. Following “Kurbsky,” poems appear one after another in magazines and newspapers signed by Ryleev, in which the pages of Russian history are read as evidence of the ineradicably freedom-loving spirit of the nation. By the nature of his talent, Ryleev was not a pure lyricist; No wonder he constantly turned to various genres of both prose and drama.
Ryleev's Dumas belong to the genre of historical elegy, close to the ballad, widely used along with lyrical and epico-dramatic artistic means. It is impossible not to notice the educational foundations in Ryleev’s worldview, and the features of civil classicism in his artistic method. At the beginning of 1823, Ryleev was accepted by I. I. Pushchin into the Northern Secret Society and soon became its leader. Alien to ambitious calculations and claims, Ryleev became the conscience of the conspiracy.
Ryleev's poetry did not glorify the delight of victory - it taught civic courage. The poetic maturity of Kondraty Fedorovich was just becoming apparent to his contemporaries on the threshold of 1825 - with the publication of “Dumas” and “Voinarovsky”, with the appearance in print of excerpts from new poems. Having directly connected his life with a secret society, with the organized struggle against autocracy and serfdom, Ryleev in the same 1823 began work on a poem about the Siberian prisoner Voinarovsky.
The epilogue to Ryleev’s entire work was destined to be his prison poems and letters to his wife. On December 14, 1825, the first of the organizers of the uprising on Senate Square, Ryleev was arrested, imprisoned in the Alekseevsky ravelin of the Peter and Paul Fortress, and six months later he was executed.
- Thirty years later, A. I. Herzen began publishing an almanac of free Russian literature abroad for Russian readers, giving it the glorious name “Polar Star”.
- The motives of Ryleev's lyrics will be developed in the poetry of Polezhaev, Lermontov, Ogarev,.
Kondraty Fedorovich Ryleev (September 18, 1795, Batovo village, St. Petersburg province - July 13, 1826, Peter and Paul Fortress, St. Petersburg) - Russian poet, public figure, Decembrist, one of the five executed leaders December uprising 1825.
Kondraty Ryleev was born on September 18 (September 29), 1795 in the village of Batovo (now the territory of the Gatchina district of the Leningrad region) in the family of a small nobleman Fyodor Andreevich Ryleev (1746-1814), manager of Princess Varvara Golitsyna and Anastasia Matveevna Essen (1758-1824). In 1801-1814 he studied at the St. Petersburg First Cadet Corps. He took part in the foreign campaigns of the Russian army in 1813-1814.
There is a description of Ryleev’s appearance during the period of his military service: “He was of average height, good build, round, clean face, proportional head, but top part it is somewhat wider; his eyes were brown, somewhat bulging, always moist...being somewhat short-sighted, he wore glasses (but more during his studies desk yours)".
Life
In 1818 he retired. In 1820 he married Natalya Mikhailovna Tevyasheva. From 1821 he served as assessor of the St. Petersburg Criminal Chamber, and from 1824 - ruler of the office of the Russian-American Company.
In 1820 he wrote the famous satirical ode “To the Temporary Worker”; On April 25, 1821 he entered the " Free Society lovers of Russian literature." In 1823-1825, Ryleev, together with Alexander Bestuzhev, published the annual almanac “Polar Star”. Member of the St. Petersburg Masonic lodge"To the flaming star."
Ryleev's Duma “The Death of Ermak” was partially set to music and became a song.
In 1823 he became a member of the Northern Society of Decembrists, then heading its most radical wing. At first he took moderate constitutional-monarchist positions, but later became a supporter of the republican system.
On September 10, 1825, he acted as a second in a duel between his friend, cousin, lieutenant K. P. Chernov and the representative of the aristocracy, adjutant V. D. Novosiltsev. The reason for the duel was a conflict over prejudices associated with social inequality duelists (Novosiltsev was engaged to Chernov’s sister, Ekaterina, however, under the influence of his mother, he decided to abandon the marriage). Both participants in the duel were mortally wounded and died a few days later. Chernov's funeral resulted in the first mass demonstration organized by the Northern Society of Decembrists.
Ryleev (according to another version - V.K. Kuchelbecker) is credited with the free-thinking poem “I swear by honor and Chernov.”
He was one of the main organizers of the uprising on December 14 (26), 1825. While in the fortress, he scratched his last poems on a tin plate, in the hope that someone would read them.
“Prison is my honor, not a reproach,
I am in it for a righteous cause,
And should I be ashamed of these chains,
When I wear them for the Fatherland!”
Pushkin's correspondence with Ryleev and Bestuzhev, concerning mainly literary matters, was friendly. It is unlikely that Ryleev’s communication with Griboyedov was politicized - if both of them called each other “republicans,” it was more likely because of their affiliation with VOLRS, also known as the “Scientific Republic,” than for any other reasons.
In preparing the uprising of December 14, Ryleev played one of the leading roles. While in prison, he took all the “blame” upon himself, sought to justify his comrades, and pinned vain hopes on the emperor’s mercy towards them.
Ryleev was executed by hanging on July 13 (25), 1826 in the Peter and Paul Fortress, among the five leaders of the speech, along with P. I. Pestel, S. I. Muravyov-Apostol, M. P. Bestuzhev-Ryumin, P. G. Kakhovsky. His last words on the scaffold, addressed to the priest P. N. Myslovsky were: “Father, pray for our sinful souls, do not forget my wife and bless my daughter.” Ryleev was one of the three unfortunates whose rope broke. He fell inside the scaffold and was hanged again some time later. According to some sources, it was Ryleev who said before his second execution: “Cursed land, where they can neither form a conspiracy, nor judge, nor hang!” (sometimes these words are attributed to P.I. Pestel or S.I. Muravyov-Apostol).
Even during the investigation, Nicholas I sent Ryleev’s wife 2 thousand rubles, and then the empress sent another thousand for her daughter’s name day. The tsar continued his care of Ryleev’s family even after the execution, and his wife received a pension until her second marriage, and his daughter Anastasia was given a pension until she came of age.
Ogarev wrote a poem in memory of Ryleev.
The exact burial place of K.F. Ryleev, like other executed Decembrists, is unknown. According to one version, he was buried along with other executed Decembrists on Goloday Island.
Creation
Among the political and literary figures of the Decembrist movement, K. F. Ryleev occupies a prominent place - both as one of the leaders of the revolution being prepared and as a poet, in whose work the aspirations and hopes of the heroes of December 14 were most clearly expressed.
Kondraty Fedorovich Ryleev was born on September 18, 1795 in the village of Batov, Sofia district, St. Petersburg province, in the family of Lieutenant Colonel F. A. Ryleev. Ryleev received his education in the first St. Petersburg cadet corps, where his inclination towards verbal sciences was already evident. The future poet was seventeen years old when the Patriotic War began, which had a huge impact on his ideological development.
Inspired by patriotic feelings, young Ryleev writes his first works - the odes “To the Destruction of Enemies” and “Love for the Fatherland.” The last ode was dedicated to the commander-in-chief of the Russian army, M. I. Kutuzov, who died in 1813:
Praise, savior of the fatherland!
Praise, praise, son of the fatherland!
Destroyer of villainous plans,
A loyal citizen of Russia,
And the scourge and horror of all the French! —
You died in body Kutuzov,
But you will live forever a hero -
And will be glorious in future centuries,
And the evil enemy will not dare,
Disturb the peace of Russia!..
Ryleev's early poetic experiments, despite their student character, in their themes, however, already foreshadowed the leading principles of the entire life and work of the future Decembrist poet.
After graduation cadet corps in February 1814, Ryleev was released as an ensign into the horse artillery and immediately went to the active army, which was abroad. Ryleev spent two years with a short break on campaigns in Germany, Switzerland and France. At the end of 1815, upon returning from campaigns, Ryleev, together with his company, was assigned to the Ostrogozhsky district of the Voronezh province, where he served for three years, and then retired and soon moved to St. Petersburg. Here, in January 1821, he was elected assessor to the chamber of the criminal court and remained in this position until the spring of 1824. Even N. Grech, who in his memoirs tried in every possible way to denigrate the Decembrists, still considered it necessary to note that Ryleev “served diligently and honestly, trying in every possible way to soften the fate of the defendants, especially ordinary, defenseless people.”
Ryleev arrived in St. Petersburg without yet being known as a poet. He began publishing only in 1820, when he was 25 years old. He did not print everything that Ryleev wrote while on campaigns and then in Ostrogozhsky district. Artistically early poems Ryleev were mainly imitative in nature. These were songs, romances, occasional poems and other poetic experiments in the spirit of the school of Zhukovsky and Batyushkov.
Literary fame was brought to Ryleev by his satire “To the Temporary Worker,” published in the Nevsky Spectator in 1820. This satire was at the same time the beginning of Ryleev’s revolutionary activity. In the image of an “arrogant temporary worker,” “insidious and vile,” contemporaries recognized Arakcheev, the all-powerful favorite of Alexander I, the organizer of “military settlements.” The exceptional topicality of Ryleev’s satire was due to the tense political situation - domestic and international. At this time, the events of the Spanish Revolution were unfolding, and in the fall of 1820, on the eve of the appearance of satire, an uprising of the Semenovsky Life Guards Regiment took place in St. Petersburg.
Since 1820, Ryleev collaborated in leading St. Petersburg magazines and joined literary organizations. In April 1821, he was elected a member of the Free Society of Lovers of Russian Literature, led by F.N. Glinka. Here Ryleev’s literary and political education was completed, and he rose to the ranks of the most important and active participants in the Society.
Every year, Ryleev’s literary and political connections expanded more and more. He became close to N. I. Gnedich, whom he considered his leader in the field of civil poetry, met one of the major figures of Decembrism, N. I. Turgenev, and finally became friendly with A. A. Bestuzhev and I. I. Pushchin. A. A. Bestuzhev soon became like-minded with Ryleev in revolutionary and literary work; Together with him, Ryleev published the almanac “Polar Star” (1823-1825). I. I. Pushchin was Ryleev’s colleague in the St. Petersburg chamber of the criminal court for more than a year; He also introduced Ryleev into the Northern Secret Society.
Ryleev was friendly with E. A. Baratynsky (whose poems he was going to publish), A. A. Delvig, P. A. Vyazemsky, with Pushkin, whom he met in St. Petersburg even before Pushkin’s deportation to the south. Ryleev never had the opportunity to meet Pushkin after 1820, but they corresponded, especially intensively in 1825. Ryleev met and also became close friends with the great Polish poet A. Mickiewicz, who was exiled in 1825 by order of the tsarist government from Poland to St. Petersburg for service.
In the Northern Secret Society, which Ryleev joined in October 1823, he immediately occupied a prominent position. At this time, the main attention of the Society's members was focused on discussing and criticizing Nikita Muravyov's draft constitution, which provided for the strong executive and military power of the emperor, as well as a very high property qualification for voters. Ryleev agreed with the constitutional monarchy, but sharply criticized the system of property qualifications, considering necessary introduction democratic in Russia government structure. Disagreeing, therefore, on the most significant points with Nikita Muravyov, Ryleev, however, until the spring of 1824, remained a supporter of N. Muravyov and N. Turgenev on the issue of a constitutional monarchy. Ryleev's hopes for an "enlightened monarch" who would be able to implement a broad program of socio-political reforms were reflected in such odes as "Vision" and "Civil Courage". “Civil Courage” extolled the valor of Admiral N. S. Mordvinov, one of the Northern Society’s candidates for membership in the future provisional government.
The ode “Vision” was addressed to the five-year-old Tsarevich Alexander (the future Alexander II), whom the Decembrists at one time intended to enthrone:
Love the voice of free truth,
For the benefit of your own love,
And the spirit of ignoble slavery -
Destroy injustice... -
This is how the poet addressed the future king.
But Ryleev did not stop at the constitutional-monarchist program. In the spring of 1824, he was already leaving her. In the ideological and political evolution of Ryleev, his meetings and conversations with P. I. Pestel, who in March 1824 came to St. Petersburg to meet with the leaders of the Northern Society (S. P. Trubetskoy, N. M. Muravyov, etc.) were of great importance. on the issue of connecting the Northern and Southern societies and coordinating revolutionary work. Disputes with Pestel left a deep mark on the mood of the Society: S. P. Trubetskoy and N. M. Muravyov showed sharp resistance to Pestel’s republican and democratic program and his Jacobin tendencies; on the contrary, other northerners, in particular Ryleev and E.P. Obolensky, were greatly impressed by Pestel’s ideas. In the spring of 1824, the ideological stratification of Northern society began, the gradual withdrawal of right-wing elements from the leadership of revolutionary work and the formation of a left wing, the leader of which was Ryleev. It was under the influence of Pestel that Ryleev moved from constitutional-monarchist views to republican and democratic positions, to the program of the southerners. Pestel's broad plans, his determination and integrity brought energy into the atmosphere of Northern society.
In the spring of 1824, Ryleyev, on the recommendation of Admiral N. S. Mordvinov, was appointed ruler of the office of the Russian-American trade campaign, which attracted the attention of other Decembrists with the prospect of establishing ties with the opposition-minded part of the merchants. During the second half of 1824 and all of 1825, Ryleev’s activities reached exceptional breadth and intensity. Along with his official work, Ryleev carried out a lot of underground revolutionary work; together with A. Bestuzhev, he published “The Polar Star” and devoted a lot of time to poetic creativity.
Together with A. Bestuzhev, Ryleev wrote propaganda songs, which were one of the earliest experiments in revolutionary propaganda literature in Russia. “The slavery of the people, the severity of oppression, the miserable life of a soldier were depicted in them in simple words, but in true colors,” the Decembrist N. Bestuzhev recalled about these propaganda songs.1 Ryleev and Bestuzhev based their songs on the forms of peasant, soldier and bourgeois folklore, filling their politically relevant topics. One of the best songs, “Oh, I feel sick,” was written to the voice of the widely popular romance by Neledinsky-Meletsky. In simple words, this song spoke about the trade in serfs, “like cattle,” about excessive taxes, about the corruption of the court and the clergy. Another wonderful song, “As the blacksmith walked,” was written to the voice of the “sub-blind” songs, which spoke of “knives” “on the boyars, on the nobles,” “on the priests, on the saints,” and on the tsar.
Very recently, several previously unknown propaganda (“undercover”) songs have been discovered, written in the same style as the above-mentioned songs by Ryleev and Bestuzhev. However, there is not yet sufficient data to confirm that the newly found songs belong to Ryleev and Bestuzhev; one can only say that these songs undoubtedly came from the Decembrist environment.
Among the works of Ryleev with a pronounced propaganda attitude is the famous poem “Citizen”. This work is a poetic declaration, expressing revolutionary patriotic thoughts and aspirations with exceptional force positive hero of the Decembrist era, a hero who devoted his life to the struggle “for the oppressed freedom of man.” The pathos inherent in this poem is at the same time the pathos of all of Ryleev’s civic poetry.
Back in August 1824, Ryleev handed over the songs “Oh, I’m sick” and “Citizen” for illegal distribution to the Decembrist M.I. Muravyov-Apostol upon his departure from St. Petersburg to the south. So, at least, Ryleev himself testified at the commission of inquiry into the Decembrist case. But regarding “Citizen,” there is another version: according to the Decembrists I. I. Pushchin and N. A. Bestuzhev, “Citizen” was written in December 1825, i.e., shortly before the uprising.
"Citizen" is one of the most remarkable monuments political lyrics Decembrism These poems were widely distributed in numerous illegal lists as a proclamation calling for a fight against the autocracy. It should be noted that in the work “What to do?” V.I. Lenin paraphrases a line from “Citizen” (“To disgrace the citizen’s dignity”), justifying his plan for organizing professional revolutionaries.
At the beginning of 1825, in place of Prince S.P. Trubetskoy, who left for Kyiv, Ryleev was elected a member of the Duma of the Northern Society and “intensified his activities.” Ryleev was literally on fire revolutionary work. He accepted N. A. Bestuzhev, P. G. Kakhovsky, A. I. Odoevsky and many others into the secret society; through V.I. Steingel, in the interests of the Society, he tried to establish connections with the Moscow merchants; he energetically selected people for his organization; led tirelessly revolutionary agitation and propaganda. The spring of 1825 saw Ryleev’s rapprochement on the basis of common political and literary interests with A. S. Griboyedov and V. K. Kuchelbecker.
During the preparation for the uprising, Ryleev also grew as a poet. In 1825, his collection “Dumas” and the poem “Voinarovsky” were published as separate books. Ryleev worked on “Dumas” from 1821 to the beginning of 1823, publishing them in various magazines. “Voinarovsky” was written in 1823, when work on “Dumas” had already been abandoned. Despite their simultaneous publication, “Dumas” and “Voinarovsky” belong to different stages of Ryleev’s ideological and artistic development. The political direction of the “Dumas”, which formed under direct impact Welfare Union program was moderate. On the contrary, “Voinarovsky” is already saturated with rebellious pathos, turning into militant calls for an uprising against despotism.
Ryleev’s task in “Dumas” was the artistic resurrection historical images to educate “fellow citizens through the exploits of their ancestors.” Ryleev’s appeal to national history was connected with the understanding of Russia’s past, characteristic of the Decembrists, and with the question of the nationality of art. Ryleev’s “Dumas” were given portrait characteristics a number of figures of Russian history, starting from legendary times (“Oleg the Prophet”, “Olga at Igor’s grave”, “Svyatoslav”, etc.) and ending with the 18th century (“Volynsky”, “Natalya Dolgorukova” and “Derzhavin”). The very selection of names was unusually indicative for the Decembrist poet. The heroes of Ryleev’s “Dumas” are brave denouncers of evil and injustice, people’s leaders who suffered for the love of their homeland. Here are the fighters for the liberation of the people from foreign invaders (“Dmitry Donskoy”, “Bogdan Khmelnitsky”), and the military leader (“Oleg the Prophet”, “Svyatoslav”, “Ermak”), and ardent patriots dying for their people (“Ivan Susanin ", "Mikhail Tverskoy"). All Dumas are imbued with a feeling of deep patriotism. Ryleev calls for a fight against tyrants and treats with hatred such figures who relied on foreign forces (“Dmitry the Pretender”).
Among the “Dumas” that remained unpublished during Ryleev’s lifetime, there are also “Dumas” associated with images of the Novgorod freemen. These are the thoughts about “Marfa the Posadnitsa” and about “Vadim,” the defender of the ancient rights of free Novgorod.
Ryleev took the very name of his “Dumas” from the Ukrainian folk poetry- these were the names of folk songs of a historical nature. The thematic source for most of the thoughts was Karamzin’s “History of the Russian State” for Ryleev. It should be emphasized that there was no ideological dependence on Karamzin in the Dumas; the poet sharply disagreed with him politically, but he used Karamzin’s work as the only presentation of the history of Russia in the 20s.
In the monologues of “Dmitry Donskoy,” speaking about the “former freedom of the forefathers,” or in the speeches of Volynsky, we hear the voice of the poet himself with his patriotic appeals, aspirations and hopes. All Ryleev’s historical heroes converge to one center, to one image of a person - the hero of the Decembrist era with all the features of his worldview, with the characteristic symbolism of his poetic language (“tyrant”, “citizen”, “public good”, “freedom”, etc. .). But the worldview of the Decembrist poet, expressed in “Dumas,” sometimes came into conflict with the objective essence of the hero into whose mouth certain thoughts and monologues of freedom-loving content were put (as, for example, in the “Volynsky” Duma). There is no doubt that this contradiction caused Pushkin’s remark in a letter to Zhukovsky in April 1825: “Ryleev’s thoughts are aimed, but everything is not hitting the mark” (XIII, 167). In a letter to Ryleev himself, Pushkin sympathetically singled out only two things: “Peter the Great in Ostrogozhsk” - the Duma, the “final stanzas” of which he found extremely original, and “Ivan Susanin”, “the first Duma, according to which he began to suspect” in Ryleev “the true talent" (XIII, 175).
In general, Pushkin’s unfavorable attitude towards Ryleev’s thoughts will become completely understandable if we take into account that Pushkin sought to eliminate autobiography when creating images historical heroes(especially specific images that actually existed in history).
Already in the first half of the 20s, Pushkin, in his work, managed to reach an understanding of the objective pattern in the artistic reproduction of the historical process; This understanding gave him the opportunity to create “Eugene Onegin” and “Boris Godunov” - works that opened new paths in literature. Ryleev was then just embarking on these paths in his work. But, nevertheless, the “Dumas” played a significant role: they helped to strengthen interest in historical subjects in literature, and the ideas expressed in them corresponded to the goals of Decembrist propaganda.
Of great importance was Ryleev’s affirmation of the revolutionary role of the patriotic poet. In his poems, Ryleev developed the idea of a poet as a progressive citizen whose mission is to transform reality. Ryleev formulated his understanding of the poet’s tasks in the following verses:
Oh so! there is nothing higher
Purposes of the Poet:
Holy truth is his duty;
The subject is to be useful for the light.
He is seething with enmity towards untruth,
The yoke of citizens worries him;
Like a free Slav at heart.
He cannot be servile.
Hard everywhere, no matter where he is -
In defiance of fate and Fate;
Everywhere honor is his law,
Everywhere he is a clear enemy of vice.
To thunder against evilHe honors as his holy law
With calm importance
On the scaffold and before the throne.
He knows no low fear,
Looks at death with contempt
And valor in young hearts
Lights up with free verse.
The idea of the poet as a chosen one - a citizen, teacher and fighter, also determined the specific principles of Ryleev’s work. He abandoned the genres of chamber and salon poetry, to which he paid tribute during the period of his apprenticeship. Like Griboyedov and Kuchelbecker, Ryleev turned to a high pathetic ode, to satire, to a message, i.e. to those genres that cultivated poets XVIII century. Thus, Ryleev’s famous satire “To the Temporary Worker” is close in its language, metrical scheme and rhetorical structure to the satires of the 18th century, and the ode “Vision” in its themes and composition is related to the traditions of Derzhavin’s classical odes. The characteristic features of the high classical style are also obvious in such odes by Ryleev as “Civil Courage” and “On the Death of Byron.” However, Ryleev’s “classicism” was by no means a simple restoration of ancient poetic genres. Already Radishchev updated and enriched the old classical traditions. Radishchev's work had great value for the fate of Russian civil poetry. Following Radishchev, civil poetry was cultivated by a group of poets of the Free Society of Lovers of Literature, Science and the Arts (Pnin, Born, Popugaev, Ostolopov, etc.), N. I. Gnedich, V. F. Raevsky, F. N. Glinka, and finally young Pushkin . At the beginning of his poetic career, Pushkin turned to the high classical style both in the message “Licinius” and in the famous revolutionary ode “Liberty” - several years before the publication of Ryleev’s satire “To the Temporary Worker”.
The very genre of “doom”, associated with a kind of rethinking of the historical past, also absorbed the norms classical poetics. Not only in the features of language and composition, but also in the methods of approaching historical material - in elements of rhetoric and didactics - the Dumas largely continued the classical traditions.
Ryleev takes a new road in the poem “Voinarovsky”. Ryleev’s teacher in this poem was Pushkin: from him Ryleev, by his own admission, learned poetic language.
“Voinarovsky” is a poem from the historical past of Ukraine. The hero of the poem is Mazepa’s nephew and a close participant in his conspiracy against Peter I. After Mazepa’s death, Voinarovsky fled abroad, but was then handed over to the Russian government and exiled to the Yakut region. The poem is set in the 1930s years XVIII century. The historian Miller, traveling through Siberia, meets the exiled Voinarovsky near Yakutsk, and he tells him about his life, about Mazepa and his participation in the conspiracy.
Ryleev himself called the traitor and traitor Mazepa “a great hypocrite, hiding his evil intentions under the desire for the good of his homeland.”2 The story of Voinarovsky, as depicted by Ryleev, is the story of a noble and ardent young man who sincerely believed Mazepa and was seduced by him into the path of treason.
Ryleev endowed his hero with the same love of freedom that he himself possessed. The poet was primarily interested in the possibility of using the plot he had chosen to fight the autocracy. Just as in “Thoughts,” the image of the author merges in the poem with the image of Voinarovsky. In Voinarovsky’s speeches we hear the voice of a tribune and a citizen fighting for “human freedom”, for his “free rights” against the “heavy yoke of autocracy.” As a romantic, Ryleev was least interested in recreating the true historical meaning of Mazepa’s conspiracy against Peter I. Ryleev idealized the image of Mazepa here and presented it in contradiction with historical truth. It was precisely this circumstance that Pushkin later noted, who found a willful distortion in Ryleev’s image of Mazepa. historical person. Pushkin made critical remarks about “Voinarovsky” in the preface to “Poltava,” the idea of which was formed partly in connection with the impressions of Ryleev’s poem.
Pushkin criticized and assessed “Voinarovsky” from a deeply realistic position. The romantic subjectivity of “Voinarovsky” was unacceptable to Pushkin both in 1825, at the time of his correspondence with Ryleev, and later, when creating “Poltava”. In Poltava, Pushkin gave, in contrast to Ryleev, a historically true image of Mazepa as a traitor to the motherland, removing the heroic aura from him. Differences with Ryleev did not prevent Pushkin, however, from considering Voinarovsky a serious artistic achievement of the Decembrist poet. “Ryleev’s “Voinarovsky,” Pushkin wrote to A. Bestuzhev on January 12, 1824, “is incomparably better than all his “Dums,” its style has matured and is becoming truly narrative, which we almost don’t yet have.” “I make peace with Ryleev - Voinarovsky is full of life,” he wrote to his brother in 1824.
Ryleev continued to develop the genre of a romantic poem with an agitation and propaganda attitude later, after writing “Voinarovsky”. “I’m very glad that you liked Voinarovsky,” Ryleev wrote to Pushkin on February 12, 1825. “In the same way, I started Nalivaika and am drawing up a plan for Khmelnitsky. I want to do the latter in 6 songs; otherwise you won’t express everything” (Pushkin. Work on new poems was stopped by the December events. Ryleev managed to publish three excerpts from the poem about Nalivaika (“The Death of the Chigirinsky Headman,” “Kyiv” and “Confession of Nalivaika”) and two excerpts from new poem about Mazepa (“Gaydamak” and “Paley”); As for “Bogdan Khmelnitsky,” we know from the investigative testimony of F.N. Glinka that Ryleev began writing the tragedy and “... intended to go around different places Little Russia, where this hetman acted, in order to give historical credibility to his work.” Manuscripts and drafts of the poem about Nalivaika, and partly the poem about Mazepa, were preserved in Ryleev’s literary archive and were carefully studied and fully published only in the Soviet years. The manuscripts of “Khmelnitsky” and even the plan of the tragedy have not reached us.
“Nalivaiko”, “Mazepa”, “Khmelnitsky” - all three unfinished works by Ryleev were dedicated to the historical past of Ukraine and Zaporozhye. The development of the concept of the poem about Nalivaika has moved especially far forward. Judging by the plan of the poem that has come down to us, Ryleev conceived a large historical canvas: the plan lists such episodes as “oppression and cruelty of the Poles,” “uprising of the people,” campaign, battle, etc.
If in “Voinarovsky” the hero’s monologue was the main organizing element of the work, then in “Nalivaika” the center of gravity shifted to the objective narration, which is conducted by the author himself. As a result, the plot of the poem became more dynamic, and the lyrical parts of the characters received great tension. In “Voinarovsky” there is a love affair (the image of a young Cossack woman), but in “Nalivaika” the love affair is eliminated altogether.
The hero of the poem is Nalivaiko, who raised the banner of a popular uprising against Polish national oppression. The suffering of the people, selfless love for compatriots and homeland inspire Nalivaiko to fight. The people's, public cause for Nalivaika became his personal matter. The romantic image of Nalivaika is the image of a hero who lives the life of the people, their feelings, sees through their eyes:
But centuries-old insults
To forgive the tyrants of the homeland
And the shame of leaving grudges
Without fair vengeance -
I am unable: only a slave
So it can be mean and weak.
Can I see with indifference?
Enslaved fellow countrymen?..
No no! My lot: to hate
Equal to tyrants and slaves.
In "Nalivaika" in much to a greater extent than in “Voinarovsky,” contemporaries easily discerned an open call to fight the autocracy. Nalivaika’s words sounded like the words of Ryleev himself. The agitation and propaganda meaning of the poem is especially exposed in “Nalivaika’s Confession”:
I know: destruction awaits
The one who rises first
On the oppressors of the people -
Fate has already doomed me.
But where, tell me, when was it
Freedom redeemed without sacrifice?
I will die for my native land, -
I feel it, I know...
And joyfully, holy father,
I bless my lot!
“When Ryleev wrote Nalivaika’s confession,” the Decembrist N.A. Bestuzhev recalled in his memoirs, “my sick brother Mikhail Bestuzhev lived with him. One day he was sitting in his room and reading. Ryleev worked in his office and finished these poems. Having finished writing, he brought them to his brother and read them. The prophetic spirit of the passage involuntarily struck Michael. “Do you know,” he said, “what prediction you wrote to yourself and to you and me. It’s as if you want to point out your future lot in these verses.” “Do you really think that I doubted my appointment for even a minute,” said Ryleev. “Believe me, that every day convinces me of the necessity of my actions, of the future destruction with which we must buy our first attempt for the freedom of Russia, and at the same time of the need for an example to awaken the sleeping Russians.”
The premonition of defeat and death is clearly expressed in Ryleev’s lyrical poetry. But he was not afraid of defeat, and he deliberately went to his death, showing an example of selfless devotion to his homeland and freedom.
His poetry is inextricably linked with these personality traits of Ryleev. In “Dums”, in “Voinarovsky” and, finally, especially vividly in “Nalivaika” heroic theme Ryleev combines the struggle against tyranny and despotism with the motives of possible defeat and death, which his heroes undertake as consciously as he himself did.
Since November 1825, Ryleev became the leader of the Northern Secret Society of Decembrists. He was destined to inspire and lead the armed uprising of December 14th. In preparation for the uprising, Ryleev began vigorous activity; on the morning of December 14, he energetically instructed members of the secret society, and then was in the ranks of the rebels military units on Senate Square.
After the defeat of the uprising, Ryleev was arrested and imprisoned in the Alekseevsky ravelin of the Peter and Paul Fortress. Ryleev spent six months in prison and experienced a deep spiritual tragedy. The struggle for “freedom of the fatherland” was forcibly interrupted. The poet was overcome by religious and mystical moods. But even at a time of severe moral depression, Ryleev was still full of enthusiastic exaltation and his readiness to die for his convictions did not leave him. He wrote in his prison poems:
Both flesh and blood will put barriers for you,
You will be persecuted and betrayed,
To ridicule and insolently dishonor,
You will be solemnly killed.
But vain fear should not disturb you,
And are those who have the power to take life terrible?
But this will not harm you.
(“To Prince E.P. Obolensky”).
By the verdict of the Supreme Criminal Court, Ryleev, together with Pestel, S. Muravyov-Apostol, Bestuzhev-Ryumin and Kakhovsky, was sentenced to death penalty quartering. In the official “List of State Criminals” next to Ryleev’s surname it was written: “Intended to commit regicide; appointed a person to perform this task; he intended for imprisonment, expulsion and extermination of the imperial family and prepared means for this; strengthened the activities of the Northern Society; controlled it, prepared methods for rebellion; made plans, forced him to compose a Manifesto for the destruction of the government; he himself composed and distributed outrageous songs and poems and accepted members; prepared the main means for the rebellion and was in charge of them; he incited the lower ranks to revolt through their superiors through various seductions, and during the rebellion he himself came to the square.”
The sentence of death by quartering was commuted to hanging for all convicted. On July 13, 1826, Ryleev, among the five Decembrists, “who, due to the severity of their atrocities, are placed beyond the ranks and beyond comparison with others,” was hanged from the crown of the Peter and Paul Fortress.
It was as if Ryleev was talking about himself in one of his thoughts:
And even though he falls, he will live
In the hearts and memory of the people,
Both he and the fiery impulse
A beautiful and free soul.
Glorious death for the people!
Singers, in retribution to the hero,
From century to century, from generation to generation
His deeds will be reported.
(“Volynsky”).
Ryleev’s poems were distributed illegally for several decades in numerous handwritten copies, since after 1825 not only all of Ryleev’s works were banned, but even his very name was not allowed to be mentioned in print.1 Merit for the resurrection literary heritage The Decembrist poet belongs mainly to A. I. Herzen and N. P. Ogarev. In London North Star"In 1856, the very name of which indicated its continuity with the almanacs of Ryleev and A. Bestuzhev, previously unknown texts by Ryleev were published. In 1860, N. P. Ogarev published a foreign edition of “Dum”, and in 1861 he published odes and songs of Ryleev in the collection “Russian Secret literature XIX centuries." In the same year, in Leipzig, in the first volume of the “Library of Russian Authors”, a publication entitled “ Complete collection works of K. F. Ryleev", including "Materials for the biography of K. F. Ryleev" (memories of Ryleev by N. Bestuzhev, Prince Obolensky, etc.), "Dumas", poems, "Political Poems", " Various poems", "Songs written by Ryleev together with A. Bestuzhev", "Prose articles" (including letters from Ryleev to Pushkin) and a bibliographic article on the works of Ryleev. The publication is preceded by an engraved portrait of Ryleev and, as a dedication, a poem by N. P. Ogarev “In Memory of Ryleev.” “I remember,” Herzen recalled in 1864, “how, interrupting Griboyedov’s laughter, I struck, like a bell in the first week of Lent, Ryleev’s serious verse and called to battle and death, as they call to a feast...”
In the history of the Russian revolutionary movement, Ryleev’s influence was felt with exceptional force. His poems were quoted in the revolutionary press and included in publications of illegal works. V.I. Lenin’s sister, Anna Ilyinichna, says that their father “loved to sing Ryleev’s forbidden poem, set to music by students of his time<«Послание к А. А. Бестужеву»>:
You and I are brothers in spirit,
We both believe in redemption,
And we will feed until the grave
Enmity towards the scourges of my native country.
.............
Love for the holy truth
In you, I know, the heart beats,
And, I believe, he will respond immediately
To my incorruptible voice.
“We involuntarily felt,” noted A. I. Elizarova, “that my father sings this song differently from others, that he puts his whole soul into it, that for him it is something like a ‘holy of holies,’ and we loved it very much.” , when he sang it, and they asked him to sing along with him.”
Ryleev’s poetry was also of great importance in the history of Russian literature. The civic pathos of Ryleev's creativity found its continuation in the poetry of Lermontov, who was the heir of Pushkin and the Decembrist poets. The pathos of Ryleev's creativity found a response in the poems of Polezhaev and Ogarev and, finally, in the revolutionary poetry of Nekrasov.