The series was founded in 1999.
Leading specialists from the Center for Humanitarian Scientific Information Research of the Institute of Scientific Information on social sciences, Institute of Philosophy Russian Academy sciences
© S. Ya. Levit, series compilation, 2015
© Center humanitarian initiatives, 2015
Pavel Ignatievich Zhitetsky
One of the many grateful students of the Pavel Galagan College
Preface
About the personality of Gogol and his life, about his services to our society and about artistic value A lot of his works have been written. Everything essential has been sufficiently clarified, and yet anyone who would now like to talk about Gogol again is not condemned to completely repeat the old things.
Our essay does not aim to acquaint the reader in detail with the biography of the poet. Gogol has already found a biographer of rare devotion and even rarer conscientiousness. Whoever wants to know how our writer lived will read the entire chronicle of his life in the multi-volume work of V.I. Shenrok, and if the reader happens to get tired from this reading, he will probably remember that in the life of every person, even very large, there are always boring moments and uninteresting days. For V.I. Shenrok with his boundless love All the days the poet lived in Gogol were full of interest, and the biographer was right from his point of view. Our essay does not intend to become a detailed biography of the artist. We will take into account the external conditions of Gogol's life only insofar as they directly or indirectly influenced his mood or way of thinking.
Our work also does not set itself the main task of clarifying the artistic value and social significance of Gogol’s works. This value and significance have long been determined. The place occupied by Gogol's comedies and stories in the history of our literature was correctly indicated by his contemporary Belinsky. The assessment he made, although it concerned primarily the aesthetic value of Gogol’s creations, quite clearly hinted at their social role. This public importance Gogol's work, in connection with its artistic significance, then repeatedly served as the subject of research. After Chernyshevsky, Apollon Grigoriev, A.N. Pypin and Alexei N. Veselovsky, one can hardly say anything new on this issue. Everyone knows how, together with Pushkin, Gogol shares the glory of a truly people's artist, the first true realist in art. No one will exaggerate now civic merit Gogol and, on the other hand, no one will overlook the decisive influence that Gogol’s words had on our self-awareness.
Likewise, there is hardly any need to reconsider the history of the process itself artistic work Gogol - the history of his “techniques of mastery”. N. S. Tikhonravov’s notes to his classic edition of our author’s works have forever freed literary historians from working on such a revision.
If we admit, therefore, that the biography of the poet, and the artistic and social value of his works, and, finally, the very methods of his work have been sufficiently clarified and described, then it falls to the lot of the researcher, who does not want to limit himself to just repetition, to revise two of the still insufficient developed questions.
It is necessary, firstly, to restore as completely as possible the history of the mental movements of this mysterious soul artist and, secondly, to explore in more detail the mutual connection that unites Gogol’s work with the work of previous and contemporary writers.
Of these two problems, the first does not allow complete solution. Gogol took with him to the grave the secret of his soul, this mysterious soul, whose mental movements were so complex and so amazed his contemporaries. The inner torment of this suffering spirit, resolved by real mental illness, will forever remain a semi-explainable mystery. The researcher is forced to limit himself to only guesswork - an attempt to reconstruct the consistent change of feelings and thoughts of the writer from those fragmentary words and hints that come across in his correspondence and on some intimate pages of his works.
As for the question of the position that Gogol’s works occupy among contemporary monuments of literary creativity, the solution to this problem is both possible and necessary for a correct assessment of literary and public role our writer.
Gogol had assistants - writers who, with their works, paved the way for him or worked with him on the same task and sometimes even looked more closely at certain aspects of life to which our satirist did not have time to pay due attention. This is the connection between Gogol’s works and literary monuments of his time and remains not yet fully clarified. In the old days, only Belinsky, in whose eyes Gogol matured, assessed his work in connection with all the literary novelties of that day. After Belinsky, who contributed so much to strengthening Gogol’s fame, this glory finally drowned out the memory of all our writer’s associates, and they were forgotten. When Gogol’s disciples came to replace him, then there was even less reason to remember the old things. However, we now have to remember it, and in the history of our satirist’s work a place should be given to the work of those smaller forces with which he managed to accomplish his great work. The story about this joint work of Gogol and his associates will be main task our essay. We will try to find out how the fantasy of Russian writers gradually came closer to Russian reality and how great the significance of Gogol’s words was in the history of this rapprochement between life and fiction.
When performing this task, we do not need to take into account everything that Gogol wrote.
Gogol's literary activity, as is known, took last years his life has a very special direction. The artist-writer of everyday life turned into a moralist-preacher. This transformation had been prepared for a long time, almost from Gogol’s first steps in the literary field: his work did not experience any sharp change, no crisis, but general character it changed imperceptibly and gradually. The moment came when the embodiment of life in art began to interest Gogol less than the general religious and moral meaning of this life and its discovery in the practice of social phenomena. This happened around the mid-40s, when the first part of " Dead souls"was finished, the second was sketched, the first full meeting works were published when everything that Gogol the artist left us was created.
This predominance of reflection over direct creativity in the artist’s creations coincided with an increase in society itself of interest in various practical and theoretical issues of a social nature, which in the late 40s began to take over the thoughts of our publicists and artists.
Thus, Gogol played a very special role: in the 30s and early 40s, his works were the most outstanding literary phenomena and all sorts of literary disputes boiled around them; at the end of the 40s, the same Gogol was an interpreter of various social issues of paramount importance. Indeed, no matter how severely we criticize his famous “Correspondence with Friends,” we must admit that the appearance of this book had a great influence on the stimulation of our social thought and that this book itself was the writer’s answer to those questions of personal and social ethics that then they were brewing - an answer, exhaustive or superficial, true or false - this, of course, is a different question.
Thus, even if we do not recognize any sharp changes or turns in the work of Gogol himself, still the history of his literary activity admits of division into two eras, of which one is characterized by the flourishing predominantly artistic creativity the poet, and the other - the desire to comprehend him and understand life exclusively as an ethical and religious problem.
Our next story from the “Collectors and Collections” series is dedicated to Alexander Alexandrovich Kotlyarevsky and his son Nestor Alexandrovich.
Alexander Kotlyarevsky
Alexander Kotlyarevsky - philologist, historian, archaeologist, ethnographer - was a bright figure in the Russian firmament historical science mid-19th century. He was born in 1837 in Kremenchug, in the family of a modest landowner. In 1853, after graduating from the Poltava gymnasium, Kotlyarevsky entered Moscow University. At first he specialized in Russian philology, but towards the end of his studies he became interested in Slavic studies. Kotlyarevsky found another galaxy of wonderful Moscow professors: T.N. Granovsky, P.I. Kudryavtseva, F.I. Buslaev, and Slavic studies at the University was taught by O.M. Bodyansky. Even in his student years (very poor, it should be noted) Alexander Kotlyarevsky began collecting his library. Alexander Veselovsky recalls: “Since the mid-fifties, an unusually unique personality began to noticeably emerge in student circles in Moscow; both by type and by dialect he was a blood-born Little Russian; life was in full swing in him, fire sparkled in his intelligent eyes, his speech amazed him with wit; extremely active, the main instigator of serious disputes and the most amusing pranks, he at the same time surprised everyone with his passionate passion for science. In his modest student room on the very tower of one of the old houses on Arbat Square, a library, rare for a student, gradually accumulated, his main treasure - and among other comrades it aroused some kind of special, almost fearful respect for him...” In the memoirs of his contemporaries, Kotlyarevsky appears exemplary “pre-reform student”: a passionate supporter of the movement, struggle, breaking the obsolete and inert; ideal of the future public figure, publicist, critic.
Alexander Kotlyarevsky graduated from the University in 1863 - best student Professor F.I. Buslaeva. A teaching career awaited him: for starters, at the Alexandrinsky Orphanage cadet corps. Kotlyarevsky becomes “one of famous teachers in Moscow; both in large schools... and in private lessons, as soon as he showed up and set things up, everything began to move, became interested, rushed to read and work,” Veselovsky continues his story. “He took with him from the university classroom and from his student closet all that passion for the science of nationality that warmed him own life and knew how to pass it on to teenagers.” Nevertheless, candidate exam he holds only four years later and in St. Petersburg, and not in Moscow - the reason was a conflict with a professor of theology. Kotlyarevsky collaborates a lot with magazines: he writes for Russian Messenger, Otechestvennye Zapiski, and since 1859 for Moskovskoye Obozreniye. In 1862, Alexander Kotlyarevsky got married, a direct road to the title of professor at Moscow University and successful teaching and scientific activity... But in the same year of 1862, an event occurred that changed his whole life. The indirect cause of the troubles (not to say catastrophe) turned out to be Kotlyarevsky’s love for the book. In one of the Moscow houses he met the emissary of Alexander Herzen, emigrant V.I. Kelsiev, who secretly arrived in Moscow with a false passport. Kelsiev was interested in the schism; they talked. According to another version, Kotlyarevsky did not see Kelsiev at all, but only knew about his arrival and the topic that interested him. It is a known fact: Kotlyarevsky gave Kelsiev Novitsky’s book “On the Doukhobors” with his autograph. Having gone abroad, Kelsiev boasted of meeting Kotlyarevsky (and not only him!) in a letter to a Moscow acquaintance. The letter was intercepted, Alexander Kotlyarevsky was arrested and placed in the Peter and Paul Fortress. He was released six months later, with incipient consumption and a wolf ticket, with a ban on serving in the “educational department,” that is, teaching. It is worth noting that Kelsiev’s letter brought trouble not only to the hero of our story: A.N. Afanasyev, also mentioned in the ill-fated message, lost his place in the Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was forced to sell his library. Some books from Afanasyev’s collection are now kept in the State Public Library; we plan to talk about him in our series about collectors. As for Kelsiev, in 1867, having spent a fair amount of time wandering around Europe, he returned to Russia, renounced his revolutionary views and was pardoned by Emperor Alexander II. Kotlyarevsky remained under police supervision until 1869.
IN Peter and Paul Fortress Kotlyarevsky was allowed to write, and in 1862 his “Note on bibliography regarding the science of Russian antiquity and nationality” appeared in “Notes of the Fatherland” under the title “In memory of Russian bibliographers.” “All the instructions that we will have to make in continuation of this note,” writes Kotlyarevsky, “we do from memory, without any reference to books, which at the moment, due to some circumstances, are completely inaccessible to us... Let our bibliographers serve Russian science, but this requires strict preliminary work, a strict systematic method.”
Since 1864, Alexander Kotlyarevsky has been a fellow secretary and librarian of the Moscow Archaeological Society, editor of the Archaeological Bulletin, and museum curator. Count A. Uvarov, founder of the Archaeological Society, takes part in his fate.
A brochure from the library of A. Kotlyarevsky, woven into a convolute. From the Uvarov Foundation to the GPIB.
Since 1867, Kotlyarevsky was allowed to teach, but only in Dorpat, where he worked from 1868 to 1873. He is listed as “an extraordinary professor of the Russian language in particular and Slavic linguistics in general.”
Only in 1875, Alexander Kotlyarevsky, who had already defended his master’s and doctoral dissertations and was a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences, received permission to “serve in the educational department” without restrictions. Kyiv University makes significant efforts to “amnesty” the famous scientist - and immediately invites Alexander Alexandrovich to the position of professor. But his health was undermined in prison: according to his friends, “in a sickly creature with haggard facial features... it would be in vain to look for similarities with his former... sparkling nature.”
Alexander Kotlyarevsky passed away on September 29, 1881, he was only 44 years old. He left over 100 scientific works, among which the largest are devoted to Slavic antiquities: the dissertations “Funeral customs of the pagan Slavs”, “Antiquities of the legal life of the Baltic Slavs”, “Book about the antiquities and history of the Pomeranian Slavs in the 12th century”, “A look at ancient life from popular popular prints”, "The Tale of Russian Bogatyrs." As training course he prepared and read the “encyclopedia of the Slavs.” But today we will talk about the legacy of Alexander Kotlyarevsky as a bibliophile and collector.
A.N. Pypin in his work “Essay on the biography of Professor A.A. Kotlyarevsky” says: “His collection, it seems, from the very beginning acquired a special and deliberately adopted character. In our hands was a catalog of his library from 1858, when he had just left the university bench: the library even then had a certain character - works on it were found in it. general issues science, and then foreign, especially German works on language, mythology, custom, and everything significant that our literature represented in this area at that time. Subsequently, these beginnings grew into a wonderful special library, the only one of its kind in our country... He [Kotlyarevsky] wanted his library to be a complete collection of literature on the subject and, as it were, a visually collected history of science.”
Kotlyarevsky’s library contained books in Russian, ancient, Western European and Slavic languages, publications mainly from the 18th – 19th centuries. There are books XVII – early XVIII V. The Kotlyarevsky collection is interesting, in to a greater extent, not as rare books, but as a thematic collection: classical works on Slavic studies, publications of medieval historical monuments, publications of Slavic awakeners, numerous dictionaries, from encyclopedic to linguistic (including Sanskrit-English), books on folklore different nations, works on history early Christianity, translations of biblical texts into Slavic languages.
Special interest present magazine clippings for different years: some of them were selected in large volumes, each volume is bound, with Kotlyarevsky’s hand marking which magazine the clipping was taken from. There are 12 such numbered volumes stored in the GPIB, they are united by one name: “Collectanea”.
Design of a collection of newspaper and magazine clippings by A.A. Kotlyarevsky. Convolutes from the GPIB funds.
There are also rare publications in Kotlyarevsky’s collection: an album with an accompanying text by Francesco Perucci “Funeral customs of all nations of the world” on Italian, published in Verona in 1646, the first edition of the Kraledvor manuscript of Hanka, the Latin-Croatian dictionary of Belostenich, on which Kotlyarevsky’s hand is marked: “The book is rare and very important, purchased for 12 thalers. Dorpat 1870 November 24 AK."
Kotlyarevsky was responsible for assembling the collection himself, without resorting to the help of intermediaries. His collection contains books from other private libraries (M.P. Pogodin, A.I. Zima, P.I. Keppen), but it is quite obvious that the publications were not acquired in “blocks”, not in parts of collections, as other bibliophiles often did , namely “pointwise”, on a certain, rather narrow, topic. Perhaps there was a book exchange between scholar-collectors. Kotlyarevsky kept the autographs and notes of his colleagues on the publications he received.
"Illyrian folk songs", collected by Stanko Vraz. An autographed book from the collection of A. Kotlyarevsky, with Köppen’s note: “Received from Mr. Safarik from Prague in 1839.”
In his book collection, Alexander Kotlyarevsky is primarily a scientist, not a bibliophile. The books for the most part do not have a standard binding (with the exception of a selection of carefully designed clippings); some editions are signed: “Kotlyarevsky”. The scientist's bookplate looks simple and is hardly used.
Books from the collection of A. Kotlyarevsky with ownership characteristics.
A book from the library of A. Kotlyarevsky with a dedicatory inscription to the Chertkov library.
In 1894, the book collection of A.A. Kotlyarevsky was transferred to the Historical Museum by his heirs; in 1938, as part of the State Historical Museum Library, it became part of the GPIB collections.
Nestor Kotlyarevsky
Nestor Aleksandrovich Kotlyarevsky was born on January 21, 1863. He received his education at the Kyiv Collegium named after Pavel Galagan, as well as at the Faculty of History and Philology of Moscow University. The choice of faculty for Nestor Alexandrovich was determined by his father, Alexander Kotlyarevsky, who wanted to see his son as his successor in Slavic studies. ON THE. Kotlyarevsky sought to devote himself to natural science and dreamed of great scientific expeditions; He retained this interest throughout his life: Nestor Alexandrovich’s relatives and acquaintances talked about his collections of butterflies, beetles, bird nests with eggs of different breeds of birds, including those collected with his own hands.
As a result, N.A. Kotlyarevsky abandoned studies in Slavic studies, choosing the history of universal literature as his topic. His student work was devoted to Christian apocrypha and love poetry of the Middle Ages, and his first published research was the translation and introductory article to E. Laveley's essay “The Formation of Popular Epices and the Origin of the Song of the Nibelungs” (1884). Nestor Kotlyarevsky managed to happily combine his studies in the history of general and Russian literature. After graduating from the University, he was sent to Paris to prepare for his master's exams, attended lectures at the Sorbonne, studied Old French and Provençal, and, returning to Moscow in 1889, published his first independent work on the history of Russian literature - a small brochure with title: “Literary essays. Vol. I. Poetry of grief and anger." His master's thesis in literature, “World Sorrow at the end of the last and the beginning of our century,” according to experts, deserved the highest rating in the specialty “ The World History“, N. Kotlyarevsky’s research turned out to be so useful for both disciplines.
Having defended himself, Nestor Alexandrovich moved to St. Petersburg, connecting with the capital Russian Empire all my later life. Alexander Nikolaevich Pypin, an old acquaintance of his father, cousin of N.G., helped him settle in the city on the Neva. Chernyshevsky, literary critic and ethnographer. In Pypin's house, N. Kotlyarevsky met remarkable representatives of science, art and literature of that time - S. Kovalevskaya, Vl. Solovyov, M.A. Balakirev. From Pypin, Nestor Kotlyarevsky learned to love and understand the people of the 60s and their selfless service to the idea, and one of best works his own, “Eve of Liberation,” which talks about these people, dedicated “ of blessed memory Alexander Nikolaevich Pypin."
N. Kotlyarevsky continued - and very successfully! - combine interest in world literature with a passion for domestic literature. At Pypin’s, he gave a two-year course on the history of German romanticism of the Sturm und Drang period to the youth circle that had formed in the house - the lectures were so interesting that A.N. Pypin considered them an extraordinary event. And on the advice of Pypin, Nestor Aleksandrovich began his first book, which immediately “made his name” - it was famous work about Lermontov, completed for the 50th anniversary of the poet’s death in 1891.
The pedagogical activity of Kotlyarevsky the son was varied: from the Bestuzhev courses to the Alexander Lyceum in Tsarskoe Selo, and it was the lyceum that led him to the main work of his life. The fact is that the cooperation between Nestor Kotlyarevsky and the Alexander Lyceum occurred in an atmosphere of absolute sympathy and goodwill between the professor and the educational institution towards each other. Even after being selected as an academician, Nestor Aleksandrovich continued his readings at the Lyceum as a “freelance professor,” held back by the requests of the Lyceum staff and his own good feelings. Back in 1899, he was elected a member of the Committee of the Pushkin Lyceum Society, which indirectly contributed a lot to the replenishment of the Pushkin House, since it was collected and founded by the Lyceum Society Pushkin Museum After 1917, he completely joined the Pushkin House.
Shortly before Nestor Aleksandrovich was elected as an ordinary academician, namely on January 9, 1909, he received an invitation from the President of the Academy of Sciences to accept the title of member and participate in the work of the Commission for the construction of the monument to Pushkin in St. Petersburg, and a year and a half later, on June 10 1910, academician S.F. Oldenburg handed over to him the management of the affairs of this Commission and the Pushkin House subordinate to it. The first task set by N.A. Kotlyarevsky in this matter was to make the small, but even then very valuable scientific property of the House collected before him, the property of wide circles of society. For this purpose, Nestor Aleksandrovich petitioned the Academy with a request to allow him to occupy small passage halls and a vestibule in the main building for the Pushkin House, and when permission was received, and the halls, at his request and on his own instructions, were renovated, he began to place the first collections of the House. At the same time, he enriched the House with a very valuable contribution, transferring to it all his personal, very extensive and full knowledge case, a selected library - Russian and foreign, its own collection of portraits of Russians and foreign writers and a rare collection of antique frames for them, with great love im in different time collected. Along the way, Nestor Aleksandrovich, wherever possible, represented the Pushkin House to society, mainly in the literary environment, and did this with such tact and talent that “the name of the Pushkin House in the Academy of Sciences,” which began to appear on the pages of the press from time to time, - became, as Blok put it, “a clear, familiar sound” and “not empty to the heart.” The first issue of the House’s “Vremennik”, which appeared in 1913, was greeted not as a book that spoke about something unknown and incomprehensible, but as one for which they were ready and expected. Pushkin House, although it was headed by N.A. Kotlyarevsky, in an official capacity, became his favorite brainchild, his main concern. He delved into a thousand details - from repairing and hanging paintings to obtaining funds for the purchase of collections and organizing lectures - and “so filled with himself both the festive and everyday life of the House, so inextricably linked himself with it from his first steps in this, once a small and little-known institution, that, speaking about the Pushkin House, one cannot help but talk about Nestor Alexandrovich as its creator in the form in which the House currently exists, - wrote E. Kazanovich in the official collection of the Pushkin House of the Academy of Sciences, dedicated to in memory of N.A. Kotlyarevsky. - And if, with all this, Nestor Aleksandrovich himself during his lifetime did not like to put himself forward unnecessarily for business, if he always strived and knew how to hide himself and did not want to recognize his full significance for the House, as first the manager of its affairs, and then the director, if he renounced the name of the main implementer of the idea of the Pushkin House and attributed all the merits to others, absolving himself, as he jokingly used to say, “of all blame for the successes of the Pushkin House” and assuring that he was only engaged in mounting portraits and “physical labor” - we , his closest friends and collaborators, must say otherwise. We know that Nestor Alexandrovich’s “physical labor” was in fact only a touching detail in his overall enormous work around the House, infinitely dear to us, because it especially brought us closer to him and tied us to him. We treasured these hours of unostentatious collaboration with him, because such - so to speak - “everyday” Nestor Alexandrovich was truly ours, as few people knew him except us; but this side did not obscure in our minds the genuine, great, irreplaceable director for our business, which was Nestor Alexandrovich.”
ON THE. Kotlyarevsky died in 1925, having managed to lead the Pushkin House through the revolutionary storms and preserved its spirit and its collections in accordance with the original plans.
There are much fewer books by Nestor Aleksandrovich Kotlyarevsky in the GPIB collections than the books of his father. As already mentioned, he donated his personal library to the Pushkin House. But, nevertheless, publications with the ownership characteristics of the collection of Nestor Kotlyarevsky stand on the shelves of the GPIB book storage next to books from the collection of Alexander Kotlyarevsky.
By indirect evidence ( inventory numbers, codes, topics of publications) we can assume that Nestor Aleksandrovich’s books ended up in the library Historical Museum in 1894 together with the collection of A. Kotlyarevsky. Most of these publications were printed before the 1890s and are dedicated to medieval literature, which N.A. Kotlyarevsky studied in his youth. It should be noted that even in his youth, Nestor Aleksandrovich took care of the design of his library: the books that belonged to him are easily identified by the superex libris “NK” on the spines.
Such different stories Father and son are united by their shared devotion to science, literature and books.
References:
1. Kotlyarevsky A.A. As a keepsake for future bibliographers. A note on bibliography in relation to the science of Russian antiquity and nationality // Otechestvennye zapiski - 1862. - No. 11. - P. 78-86.
2. Pypin A.N. Essay on the biography of Professor A.A. Kotlyarevsky // Kotlyarevsky A.A. Essays. - T. 4. - St. Petersburg, 1895.
3. Pashaeva N.M. Library A.A. Kotlyarevsky // Treasury of the book. - Part 1 - M., 1988. - P. 80-89.
4. In memory of N.A. Kotlyarevsky. 1863-1925. - L., 1926. - 62 p.
Kalandarishvili Nestor Alexandrovich
Nestor Kalandarishvili Street (Kirovsky district) - former Grammatinskaya. Renamed in the 20s. It is built up with residential and administrative buildings.
It was the autumn of the difficult twentieth year. The echoes of the battles with Kolchak’s men have not yet subsided. Plants and factories stood, destroyed railway transport, bridges across major rivers are out of action...
The train was heading west. He moved slowly, for a long time. The Chinese military mission was en route to Moscow in the carriage for negotiations with the government of the RSFSR, and was accompanied by a red partisan commander Nestor Aleksandrovich Kalandarishvili with his military friends. He was well known in Siberia, and therefore many people came out to meet Kalandarishvili at large stations. Nestor Aleksandrovich warmly greeted those who met him and told them about the heroic struggle of the Siberian partisans against the White Guards and interventionists.
The enemy has been driven out of Siberia, said Kalandarishvili, but he also needs to be driven out of the Far East.
Finally the train arrived in Moscow. The next day Lenin received the partisans. Vladimir Ilyich asked in detail about the people of the detachment, their moods and needs. Kalandarishvili said that in his detachment there are people of 18 different nationalities and they are all friendly, like brothers, heroically fighting for a common proletarian cause.
Here is Kura Magomed, a Dagestani - Nestor pointed with his hand at the person sitting next to him - I am a Georgian. There is a Latvian Strod, a Hungarian Laszlo, and a Korean Nam Mai Chun in the detachment.
18 nationalities in one detachment! - Lenin repeated. - This is our strength, no enemy can defeat such a friendly multinational people, I am sure of that.
Kalandarishvili said that he considers himself a Bolshevik communist. He spoke about the same thing in Irkutsk when he joined the party. Here is his statement, written to the Irkutsk Provincial Committee of the RCP(b) in January 1921: “For more than three years I completely shared the principles and methods of the party, introducing common struggle every possible contribution and at the same time never having to worry about internal struggle, without any mental contradiction and dedicating himself wholeheartedly to this work. Until now, I have not had the time or opportunity to declare this publicly and officially join the party. Today I declare that I am no longer an anarchist-communist, but a communist-Bolshevik, a member of the RCP."
The Irkutsk party organization, taking into account the great merits of Kalandarishvili during the civil war, his active work in the ranks of the party, unquestioning execution of its will, established his party experience since 1917.
The life of Nestor Alexandrovich was complex and contradictory. He was born in 1876 in the village of Shemokmedi, Kutaisi province, into the family of a bankrupt nobleman. He graduated from a rural school. Kutaisi gymnasium, entered the Tiflis seminary. His studies were interrupted by military service from 1895 to 1897. After the army he continued his studies at the seminary. Came under the influence of the Social Revolutionaries. He carried out propaganda work among peasants and soldiers, for which he was expelled from the educational institution.
Then follow years of wandering and searching for the truth of life. In Batum he worked as a teacher and clerk at Rothschild enterprises. Constantly faced with the tyranny of oil industrialists, plant owners, and the merciless exploitation of workers, he increasingly devoted himself to revolutionary activities.
During the first Russian revolution, Nestor Aleksandrovich was actively involved in the fight against tsarism, he carried out the task of connecting Batumsky with the Caucasian Union Committee of the RSDLP, participating in holding rallies, distributing illegal literature, and sending weapons to combat squads. And during the days of the armed uprising in Batum, he fought on the barricades, in the provinces he led guerrilla warfare with punitive squads.
In the fall of 1908, Nestor decided to hide from the persecution of the gendarmerie and go to Japan. With great difficulty I reached Irkutsk. Here he received news that his comrades had managed to buy out his case on charges of armed struggle against the autocracy. Nestor decided to stay in Irkutsk. I met the Bolsheviks and contacted the Georgian community in Cheremkhovo. He was arrested more than once. The arrest in 1913 was especially difficult. Kalandarishvili spent 10 months in solitary confinement. They tried to blame him for the planned assassination attempt on the Irkutsk Governor-General Selivanov. But the defense and witnesses proved Kalandarishvili’s innocence.
The February revolution took place in Russia. At meetings and rallies, Nestor Kalandarishvili sharply criticized the policies of the Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviks and supported the Bolshevik slogan of transferring power to the Soviets. In practice, this was already a departure from anarchism.
On October 27, 1917, the first news about October revolution. Nestor Alexandrova greeted her enthusiastically.
“The October Revolution was a bright star that chained all my power to itself,” he later wrote. “I rushed into the whirlpool revolutionary life with an irrevocable decision to devote all my abilities, knowledge and my very life to the struggle for the slogans proclaimed by October - “Complete political” and economic liberation”, “Freedom, equality and brotherhood or death” - I could not imagine any other choice.” At the same time, Kalandarishvili’s worldview was greatly influenced by prominent Bolsheviks B. Shumyatsky, P. Postyshev, M. Trilisser.
On December 8, a counter-revolutionary rebellion broke out in Irkutsk. Kalandarishvili becomes one of the first ranks of defenders of Soviet power. He quickly formed a Red Guard detachment. Part of the Georgian squad, as well as a group of Cheremkhovo Red Guards, joined it. The detachment began to be called Tikhvinsky, since on central square city, he received baptism of fire.
On December 17, the rebellion was suppressed. The Revolutionary Committee noticed Kalandarishvili’s personal courage, his ability to fight and lead people. And when, at the beginning of 1918, reserves were created to protect the power of the Soviets, Nestor Alexandrovich was appointed commander of the first cavalry division, which included most of the fighters of the Tikhvin detachment.
On February 19, S. Lazo spoke to the division. He explained the situation in Eastern Siberia and called on the fighters to be ready to defend Soviet power. On behalf of the Irkutsk Revolutionary Committee, Lazo presented the fearless commander with a Caucasian saber.
“I hope,” said Lazo, “in your hands it will faithfully serve the cause of the proletarian revolution.”
“For my native Soviet power,” Nestor said in response, “I will fight to the last drop of blood.”
And indeed, for more than four years, until his death, Kalandarishvili bravely fought against his enemies. He always kept his Caucasian saber drawn. Each of his campaigns, each battle is a glorious page in the history of the civil war in Siberia. Let's talk about just a few.
In the fall of 1918, Kalandarishvili’s detachment made an unprecedented 1000-kilometer journey from Transbaikalia through Mongolia and the Sayan Mountains and reached the Cheremkhovo region. Here the “red eaglets” - as the Kalandarishviliites were popularly called - launched military activities against Kolchak’s garrisons and punitive detachments. In July 1919, the underground Irkutsk provincial committee of the RCP (b) ordered Kalandarishvili’s detachment to intensify its activities along the lines of railway, as well as expand agitation among workers and peasants. Soon the detachment blew up a bridge over the Kitoi River, derailed a courier train at the Batareinaya station, and in total over the summer organized eight train crashes carrying Kolchak’s soldiers, officers and equipment.
On the night of September 12-13, at the Aleksandrovsky Central, another batch of political prisoners - 400 people - was preparing to be sent to the city of Nikolsk-Ussuriysk. In total, the prison held over 3,000 party and Soviet workers, activists, captured Red Army soldiers and partisans. They were tortured, shot, and some of the prisoners were sent to the east, to be punished by the Semyonovites. And now the underground Bolshevik group of the Central reported about the impending new crime of the Kolchakites.
The telephone connection between the prison and Irkutsk was interrupted. A group of soldiers and officers in Kolchak uniform approached the open gates of the “transfer”. The senior officer gave the password. The guards, believing that the guard shift had arrived, let the disguised partisans through. As soon as they entered the yard, they disarmed the guards and locked them in the barn. The partisans began to knock down the doors in the barracks. The soldiers who jumped out of the guardhouse opened fire. Then the partisan machine guns started working. The prisoners rushed into the courtyard through the broken doors and windows and, armed, helped their rescuers. Most of the 420 released from prison joined Nestor's detachment or local partisan units.
At the direction of the Irkutsk Provincial Committee of the RCP (b), N. A. Kalandarishvili’s detachment moved along the Angara to join the detachments of the North-Eastern Front of the Red Partisans. In 12 days, the detachment covered 500 kilometers and reached the Lena River in the Zhigalovo region. Along the way, the “red eaglets” defeated large punitive detachments of Kolodeznikov and Kopeikin.
Kalandarishvili’s detachment proceeded through Bayandai, Kachug, Znamenka, Zhigalovo, Verkholensk and everywhere restored the power of the Soviets. He was joined by local partisan detachments of Myasnikov, Polyakov, F. Nikunde, K. Nikunde (Baikalov), A.D. Misharin.
On December 24, 1919, an uprising against the Kolchakites began in Irkutsk. All partisan formations received orders to move to Irkutsk. At the beginning of January 1920, Kalandarishvili’s detachment was located in the village of Khomutovo. This was the Soviet reserve.
On January 22, 1920, in Irkutsk, power completely passed into the hands of the Bolshevik Revolutionary Committee. On the same day, the East Siberian Soviet Army was created. I. A. Kalandarishvili’s detachment became part of it as a separate combat unit.
Kalandarishvili had to visit the Lena again. He, as commander of the Verkholensk group of forces, received an order to pursue the one and a half thousand Kappel detachment of General Sukin, who by the northern route tried to go to Transbaikalia. Together with the Fraternal Partisan Division of N.A. Burlov, Kalandarishvili overtook General Sukin and defeated him near the village of Biryulka, the remnants of Kolchak’s troops fled to Transbaikalia.
On the eve of the offensive of Kalandarishvili’s international brigade, a Japanese reconnaissance plane appeared over Mogzon. But the partisans were so disguised that the scout did not notice anything. Outwardly, everything at the station was as usual. Peasant horses were standing, kitchens were smoking, companies were marching. And the armored train stood in its place. As the commander had planned, the offensive was unexpected for the Japanese and Semyonovites... The front line passed near the small railway crossing of Gongota - between the Mogzon and Sokhondo stations. Nestor Alexandrovich and his staff developed a detailed plan. The squadrons of M. Asatiani and I. Kazhan at night approached the Sokhondo station in a roundabout way. On the right flank, the squadrons of I. Strode and M. Tsereteli took positions. The squadrons of the Hungarian J. Kiraly and Zabaev went behind enemy lines. The infantry fortified itself along the railway. The artillery and the armored train hid their positions.
On the morning of May 12, 1920, a deafening salvo was heard from the Kommunist armored train - a signal for a general offensive. The artillery opened fire on the enemy's pinpoints, and machine guns began to crackle. The infantry and squadrons went on the attack. And the Gongotsky battle broke out...
There was a continuous roar in the air. Kalandarishvili, with a Mauser in his left hand and a saber in his right hand, ran ahead of everyone and pulled others along with him.
By evening the battle died down. The Internationalists have made significant progress towards Gongotha Station. The night passed anxiously. Both sides were preparing for a new battle. The Japanese were waiting for reinforcements. But on the approach to Sokhondo station they were destroyed by the squadrons of Kirai and Zabaev. They also derailed a Japanese armored train.
At dawn, the Japanese opened heavy fire and went on the attack. Red horsemen flew towards them. The enemy from the mountain opened heavy machine-gun fire on them. The horsemen dismounted and lay down with the infantrymen. At this critical moment, Kalandarishvili appeared. With a saber and a Mauser, he rushed forward, the soldiers behind him. A hand-to-hand fight ensued. The commander jumped on his horse.
Follow me, friends! Hooray! - he shouted, but suddenly swayed in the saddle and began to fall off his horse. He was wounded in the face and left leg. The battle, however, continued. And only when victory was in sight, the commander agreed to go to the hospital.
The blow of the Kalandarishvilites against the Japanese and Semyonovites was sensitive. Soon the Japanese left Transbaikalia, the Semyonovites and Kappelevites retreated to the border of Manchuria under blows. The International Brigade became known as the Gongot Cavalry Division named after Kalandarishvili. Many commanders and privates were awarded orders, Kalandarishvili was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.
In October 1921, Nestor Kalandarishvili visited Moscow for the second time. Went with a report on the Korean revolutionary troops, which he commanded.
V.I. Lenin learned that legendary commander is in Moscow, and, despite the heavy workload, he invited him to his place for a second conversation. The leader knew that Kalandarishvili, one of the talented commanders of the Red Army, had become a Bolshevik.
In a frank conversation, Vladimir Ilyich emphasized that the most important task party and people - to end the civil war in the outskirts and begin peaceful construction.
Returning to Irkutsk, Kalandarishvili receives a new responsible task related to the liquidation of the White Guard rebellion in Yakutia. He was appointed commander of the Soviet troops of Yakutia and Northern Territory, and in the winter of 1921-1922, at 40-50 degree frosts, made a three-thousand-kilometer journey. But outside the village of Tehtyur, near Yakutsk, the headquarters squadron led by Kalandarishvili was ambushed by white bandits on March 6, 1922. Nestor Alexandrovich was killed - bullets pierced his head and heart.
On September 14, 1922, Irkutsk, in deep mourning, greeted the coffin with the body of the famous hero of the civil war, faithful son Georgian people, fighter for Soviet power. Nestor Alexandrovich was buried on Mount Kommunarov. IN last way he was seen off by member of the Sibburo of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) B. Shumyatsky, commander of the 5th Red Army I.P. Uborevich and many other military comrades.
The name of Nestor Aleksandrovich Kalandarishvili has not been forgotten. It lives in the names of the streets of Siberian cities: Irkutsk, Ulan-Ude, Kyakhta, Lensk and Kansk. A steamship on the Lena River and many collective farms are named after him. In Irkutsk and in the village of Khomutovo, in Yakutsk and in his homeland, in the city of Makharadze, monuments were erected to him.
Nestor AlexandrovichKalandarishvili (according to other data from Kalandarashvili), one of the leaders of the partisan movement in Eastern Siberia during the civil war of 1918-20.
From the nobles. After graduating from the Tiflis gymnasium (1892), he entered the teachers' seminary, where he studied until 1903 (with a break from 1895 to 1897 while serving in the army). After expulsion for revolutionary activity From the seminary he moved to Batum (now Batumi, Georgia), where he taught and served as a clerk at the Russian Society of Shipping and Trade.
In 1903 he graduated from the illegal military courses of the Socialist Revolutionaries. In 1904 he left the ranks of the Socialist Revolutionaries and joined the Party of Socialist Federalists of Georgia. In 1904–1905 he served as a liaison between the Batumi and Caucasian committees of the RSDLP. During the revolution of 1905–1907 - a member of the fighting squad of Batumi workers, took part in the armed uprising in Batum on the night of November 29-30, 1905. After the defeat of the uprising, he left Batum and went into hiding. In 1906 he took part in guerrilla warfare in Georgia. In 1907 he left the Socialist Federalist Party of Georgia and joined the Federation of Anarchist Communists. Participated in terrorist attacks by anarchists. At the end of 1907, due to police persecution, he left Georgia and hid in Ukraine. During the years of the revolution of 1905–1907, K. was arrested 8 times, and 6 times released due to lack of proof of charges, and escaped from prisons twice (Kerchin and Lukyanovskaya).
Hiding from persecution, at the end of 1908 he arrived in Irkutsk. Lived legally, worked as a photographer. According to the Irkutsk Provincial Gendarmerie Directorate, he was involved in committing a number of crimes in 1910–13: theft of money from a bank using forged documents; organizing a workshop for the production of counterfeit money; organizing a contract attempt on the life of Irkutsk merchant Ya.E. Meteleva. He took part in organizing the attempt on the life of Irkutsk Governor-General A.N. Selivanova. He was arrested three times in Irkutsk, but was released due to lack of proof of the charges.
After February revolution 1917 - member of the group of Irkutsk anarchists, participated in the work of the military section of the Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies. On November 27, 1917, after receiving news of the revolution in Petrograd, he took part in establishing Soviet power in Irkutsk. He was part of the headquarters of the Red Guard in the city.
Participant Civil War in Eastern Siberia: at the head of the cavalry division he formed in May-June 1918, he took part in battles with the troops of Ataman G.M. Semenov, with the White Czechs, led partisan movement in the Irkutsk province and on the Upper Lena. In January 1920 Irkutsk was liberated. In February 1920 he led the actions of a detachment to defeat the troops of General V.O. Kappel.
In March-April 1920 - commander of the Verkholensk group Soviet troops, from May 1920 - commander cavalry units in the People's Revolutionary Army of the Far Eastern Republic, led the defeat of the troops of Baron R.F. Ungerna. In January 1921 he joined the RCP(b). From December 1921 he commanded the troops of the Yakut region and the Northern Territory, and led the elimination of banditry in Yakutia. On January 12, 1922, he left for Yakutia to eliminate gangs. Near Yakutsk (on the stretch between the villages of Tektyur and Tabagy), he and his headquarters were ambushed and died.
Awarded the Order of the Red Banner (1921).
Streets in Irkutsk, Yakutsk, and Ulan-Ude are named after him.
Literature
- Civil war in eastern Russia. Problems of history. Novosibirsk, 2001;
- From the history of the Civil War on Far East(1918 – 1922). Khabarovsk, 1999;
- Kozhevin V.E. Legendary partisan Siberia. 3rd ed., revised, additional. Ulan-Ude, 1987;
- Podshivalov I.Yu. The path of the anarchist // Political magazine. 2008. No. 5.
P. Smirnov
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