The nineteenth century in Russian literature is the most significant for Russia. In this century, A.S. began to show his creativity. Pushkin, M.Yu. Lermontov, N.V. Gogol, I.S. Turgenev, F.M. Dostoevsky, L.N. Tolstoy, A.N. Ostrovsky. All of their works are unlike anything else and carry great meaning. Even to this day, their works are shown in schools.
All works are usually divided into two periods: the first half of the nineteenth century and the second. This is noticeable in the problems of the work and the visual means used.
What are the features of Russian literature in the nineteenth century?
The first is that A.N Ostrovsky is generally considered a reformer who brought many innovations to dramatic works. He was the first to touch upon the most exciting topics of that time. I was not afraid to write about the problems of the lower class. Also, A.N. Ostrovsky was the first to show the moral state of the soul of the heroes.
Secondly, both I.S. Turgenev is famous for his novel Fathers and Sons. He touched on the eternal themes of love, compassion, friendship and the theme of the relationship between the old generation and the new.
And, of course, this is F.M. Dostoevsky. His themes in his works are extensive. Faith in God, the problem of little people in the world, the humanity of people - he touches on all this in his works.
Thanks to the writers of the nineteenth century, today's youth can learn kindness and the most sincere feelings through the works of great people. The world was lucky that these talented people were born and lived in the nineteenth century, who gave all of humanity new food for thought, discovered new problematic topics, taught compassion for one’s neighbor and pointed out the mistakes of people: their callousness, deceit, envy, renunciation of God, humiliation of another person and their selfish motives.
Several interesting essays
- Heroes of Andersen's Little Mermaid
Hans Christian Andersen's work "The Little Mermaid" is a magical story filled with deep philosophical meaning and gives food for thought.
- Essay by Sudbinsky in the novel by Oblomov Goncharov (Image and Characteristics)
A striking secondary character of the work is one of the guests of the protagonist of the novel in the image of Mr. Sudbinsky, presented by the writer as a former office colleague of Ilya Ilyich Oblomov.
- Review of the book Woe from Wit by Griboyedov
- Alexander 1 in the novel War and Peace characterization image
At the beginning of the novel, Alexander is 28 years old. He is still young, but he is no longer young and immature. The appearance of the sovereign is described by his pleasant appearance, bursting with youth and imperial grandeur. By character he is a noble knight
Each country has its own values, rights, freedom and principles of order. Every country is proud of its citizens and their achievements. Each country wants to live according to its own rules. This charter is called the Constitution of the country
The beginning of the 19th century was a unique time for Russian literature. In literary salons and on the pages of magazines there was a struggle between supporters of various literary movements: classicism and sentimentalism, the educational movement and the emerging romanticism.
In the first years of the 19th century, the dominant position in Russian literature was occupied by sentimentalism, inextricably linked with the names of Karamzin and his followers. And in 1803, a book entitled “Discussions on the old and new syllable of the Russian language” was published, the author of which A. S. Shishkov very strongly criticized the “new syllable” of the sentimentalists. The followers of the Karamzin reform of the literary language give the classicist Shishkov a sharp rebuke. A long-term controversy begins, in which all the literary forces of that time were involved to one degree or another.
Why did polemics on a special literary issue acquire such public significance? First of all, because behind the discussions about the style there were more global problems: how to portray a person of modern times, who should be a positive and who should be a negative hero, what freedom is and what patriotism is. After all, these are not just words - this is an understanding of life, and therefore its reflection in literature.
Classicists with their very clear principles and rules, they introduced into the literary process such important qualities of the hero as honor, dignity, patriotism, without blurring space and time, thereby bringing the hero closer to reality. They showed it in “truthful language”, conveying sublime civic content. These features will remain in the literature of the 19th century, despite the fact that classicism itself will leave the stage of literary life. When you read “Woe from Wit” by A. S. Griboyedov, see for yourself.
Close to the classicists educators, for which political and philosophical themes were undoubtedly leading, most often turned to the ode genre. But under their pen, the ode from the classic genre turned into a lyrical one. Because the most important task of the poet-educator is to show his civic position, to express the feelings that take possession of him. In the 19th century, the poetry of the Romantic Decembrists would be inextricably linked with educational ideas.
There seemed to be a certain affinity between the Enlightenmentists and the Sentimentalists. However, this was not the case. Enlightenmentists also reproach the sentimentalists for “feigned sensitivity,” “false compassion,” “loving sighs,” “passionate exclamations,” as did the classicists.
Sentimentalists, despite excessive (from a modern point of view) melancholy and sensitivity, they show sincere interest in a person’s personality, his character. They begin to be interested in an ordinary, simple person, his inner world. A new hero appears - a real person who is interesting to others. And with it, ordinary, everyday life comes to the pages of works of art. It is Karamzin who first makes an attempt to reveal this topic. His novel "A Knight of Our Time" opens a gallery of such heroes.
Romantic lyrics- These are mainly lyrics of moods. Romantics deny vulgar everyday life; they are interested in the mental and emotional nature of the individual, its aspiration towards the mysterious infinity of a vague ideal. The innovation of the romantics in the artistic cognition of reality consisted in polemics with the fundamental ideas of Enlightenment aesthetics, the assertion that art is an imitation of nature. The Romantics defended the thesis of the transformative role of art. The romantic poet thinks of himself as a creator creating his own new world, because the old way of life does not suit him. Reality, full of insoluble contradictions, was subjected to severe criticism by the romantics. The world of emotional unrest is seen by poets as enigmatic and mysterious, expressing a dream about the ideal of beauty, about moral and ethical harmony.
In Russia, romanticism acquires a pronounced national identity. Remember the romantic poems and poems of A. S. Pushkin and M. Yu. Lermontov, the early works of N. V. Gogol.
Romanticism in Russia is not only a new literary movement. Romantic writers not only create works, they are the “creators” of their own biography, which will ultimately become their “moral story.” In the future, the idea of the inextricable connection between art and self-education, the artist’s lifestyle and his work will become stronger and established in Russian culture. Gogol will reflect on this on the pages of his romantic story “Portrait”.
You see how intricately intertwined styles and views, artistic means, philosophical ideas and life...
As a result of the interaction of all these areas in Russia, a realism as a new stage in the knowledge of man and his life in literature. A. S. Pushkin is rightfully considered the founder of this trend. We can say that the beginning of the 19th century was the era of the emergence and formation of two leading literary methods in Russia: romanticism and realism.
The literature of this period had another feature. This is the unconditional predominance of poetry over prose.
Once Pushkin, while still a young poet, admired the poems of one young man and showed them to his friend and teacher K.N. Batyushkov. He read and returned the manuscript to Pushkin, indifferently remarking: “Who doesn’t write smooth poetry now!”
This story speaks volumes. The ability to write poetry was then a necessary part of noble culture. And against this background, the appearance of Pushkin was not accidental; it was prepared by the general high level of culture, including poetic culture.
Pushkin had predecessors who prepared his poetry, and contemporary poets - friends and rivals. All of them represented the golden age of Russian poetry—the so-called 10-30s of the 19th century. Pushkin- starting point. Around him we distinguish three generations of Russian poets - the older, the middle (to which Alexander Sergeevich himself belonged) and the younger. This division is conditional, and of course simplifies the real picture.
Let's start with the older generation. Ivan Andreevich Krylov(1769-1844) belonged to the 18th century by birth and upbringing. However, he began to write the fables that made him famous only in the 19th century, and although his talent manifested itself only in this genre, Krylov became the herald of a new poetry, accessible to the reader by language, which opened up to him the world of folk wisdom. I. A. Krylov stood at the origins of Russian realism.
It should be noted that the main problem of poetry at all times, and at the beginning of the 19th century too, is the problem of language. The content of poetry is unchanged, but the form... Revolutions and reforms in poetry are always linguistic. Such a “revolution” occurred in the work of Pushkin’s poetic teachers - V. A. Zhukovsky and K. N. Batyushkov.
With works Vasily Andreevich Zhukovsky(1783-1852) you have already met. You probably remember his “The Tale of Tsar Berendey...”, the ballad “Svetlana”, but perhaps you don’t know that many of the works of foreign poetry you read were translated by this lyricist. Zhukovsky is a great translator. He got used to the text he was translating so much that the result was an original work. This happened with many of the ballads he translated. However, the poet’s own poetic creativity was of great importance in Russian literature. He abandoned the ponderous, outdated, pompous language of poetry of the 18th century, immersed the reader in the world of emotional experiences, created a new image of a poet, sensitive to the beauty of nature, melancholic, prone to gentle sadness and reflections on the transience of human life.
Zhukovsky is the founder of Russian romanticism, one of the creators of the so-called “light poetry”. “Easy” not in the sense of frivolous, but in contrast to the previous, solemn poetry, created as if for palace halls. Zhukovsky's favorite genres are elegy and song, addressed to a close circle of friends, created in silence and solitude. Their contents are deeply personal dreams and memories. Instead of pompous thunder, there is a melodious, musical sound of the verse, which expresses the poet’s feelings more powerfully than written words. It is not for nothing that Pushkin, in his famous poem “I remember a wonderful moment...” used the image created by Zhukovsky - “the genius of pure beauty.”
Another poet of the older generation of the golden age of poetry - Konstantin Nikolaevich Batyushkov(1787-1855). His favorite genre is a friendly message that celebrates the simple joys of life.
Pushkin highly valued the lyrics of the legendary Denis Vasilievich Davydov(1784-1839) - hero of the Patriotic War of 1812, organizer of partisan detachments. The poems of this author glorify the romance of military life and hussar life. Not considering himself a true poet, Davydov disdained poetic conventions, and this only made his poems gain in liveliness and spontaneity.
As for the middle generation, Pushkin valued it above others Evgeny Abramovich Baratynsky(Boratynsky) (1800-1844). He called his work “the poetry of thought.” This is a philosophical lyric. The hero of Baratynsky's poems is disappointed in life, sees in it a chain of meaningless suffering, and even love does not become salvation.
Lyceum friend of Pushkin Delvig gained popularity with songs “in the Russian spirit” (his romance “The Nightingale” to the music of A. Alyabyev is widely known). Languages became famous for the image he created of a student - a merry fellow and a freethinker, a kind of Russian vagante. Vyazemsky possessed a merciless irony that permeated his poems, which were mundane in theme and at the same time deep in thought.
At the same time, another tradition of Russian poetry continued to exist and develop - civil. It was connected with names Kondraty Fedorovich Ryleev (1795—1826), Alexander Alexandrovich Bestuzhev (1797—1837), Wilhelm Karlovich Kuchelbecker(life years - 1797-1846) and many other poets. They saw in poetry a means of struggle for political freedom, and in the poet - not a “pet of the muses”, a “son of laziness” who avoids public life, but a stern citizen calling for a battle for the bright ideals of justice.
The words of these poets did not diverge from their deeds: they were all participants in the uprising on Senate Square in 1825, convicted (and Ryleev executed) in the “December 14 Case.” “Bitter is the fate of poets of all tribes; Fate will execute Russia the hardest of all...” - this is how V. K. Kuchelbecker began his poem. It was the last one he wrote with his own hand: years in prison had deprived him of his sight.
Meanwhile, a new generation of poets was emerging. The first poems were written by the young Lermontov. A society arose in Moscow wise men- lovers of philosophy who interpreted German philosophy in the Russian manner. These were the future founders of Slavophilism Stepan Petrovich Shevyrev (1806—1861), Alexey Stepanovich Khomyakov(1804-1860) and others. The most gifted poet of this circle was the one who died early Dmitry Vladimirovich Venevitinov(1805—1827).
And one more interesting phenomenon of this period. Many of the poets we named turned in one way or another to folk poetic traditions, to folklore. But since they were nobles, their works “in the Russian spirit” were still perceived as stylization, as something secondary compared to the main line of their poetry. And in the 30s of the 19th century, a poet appeared who, both by origin and by the spirit of his work, was a representative of the people. This Alexey Vasilievich Koltsov(1809-1842). He spoke in the voice of a Russian peasant, and there was no artificiality, no game in this, it was his own voice, suddenly standing out from the nameless choir of Russian folk poetry.
Russian literature of the first half of the 19th century was so multifaceted.
The completed acquaintance with the course on the history of Russian literature of the 18th century allows us to summarize some results regarding the development of Russian literature, its originality and patterns.
Firstly, Russian literature constantly expanded its exploration of those layers of life from which it drew the themes and plots of its works and penetrated deeper and deeper into the inner world of man, into the secrets of his soul.
Secondly, the history of Russian literature is the history of changing genres and styles. From the almost unconditional dominance of poetry at the beginning and in the first third of the 19th century, Russian literature steadily moved towards prose. The last third of the 19th century was marked by the triumph of narrative forms. This does not mean that poetry ceases to exist. It only gives way to prose in the literary arena, but at any favorable opportunity it is ready to take revenge in the competition for power over the minds and feelings of readers.
Thirdly, Russian literature, having overcome genre thinking in the course of its movement, moved to thinking in styles, as is clearly evident in the works of Pushkin, Lermontov, and Gogol, and then to the dominance of individual authorial styles, when each writer thought in the spirit of an individual stylistic systems. This is clearly seen in the examples of Turgenev, Goncharov, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Leskov... At the same time, genres do not disappear anywhere, but style is not severely dependent on the genre, but is freed from strict genre normativity. Therefore, hybrid genre forms welded together from various genres have become especially widespread in Russian literature. For example, “Eugene Onegin” is a novel in verse, “Dead Souls” is a poem, “Notes of a Hunter” is a story and essay. Dostoevsky is a philosophical and ideological novel, Tolstoy is an epic novel.
The heyday of Russian classics in the 19th century. many foreign researchers call it a “golden age”, a kind of Renaissance, the last and “greatest of all even in comparison with the Italian, German and French Renaissance” (J. McKail). Another English critic M. Murray also noted: “The powerful inspiration that emanated so strangely and majestically from the old poets of the English Renaissance reappears in modern Russian novels.”
Currently, the fact of the universal significance of Russian literature is not only generally recognized, but is the object of close study by both domestic and foreign researchers. And many critics in various countries, analyzing certain phenomena of modern literary reality, invariably turn to the works of Russian classics as unattainable standards in the artistic field.
In Europe, already in the 70s of the last century, attention was paid to the originality and depth of Russian literature, which reflected the spiritual and moral experience of its people and raised the art of the novel, short story, and drama to new heights, “the Russian novel enchants with its “breath of life,” sincerity and compassion , ? asserted the prominent French literary critic of the last century E.M. de Vogüe. ? Young people find in him intellectual food, which they passionately crave and which our refined literature cannot offer them. I am convinced that the influence of the great Russian writers will be beneficial for our depleted art.”
Speaking about the role of Russian classics in the development of critical realism in US literature, the French researcher R. Michaud emphasizes that the modern novel in the US could not have become what it is without Dostoevsky, Tolstoy and Chekhov. The American critic I. Wile also wrote about close attention to the works of Pushkin, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky and Mayakovsky, Yesenin, Bulgakov: “No other country has literature that would enjoy a higher reputation among American intellectuals than Russian and Soviet literature.”
At one time, Dostoevsky answered the question “Who do you put higher: Balzac or yourself?” answered: “Each of us is dear only to the extent that he brought something of his own, something original to literature.” These words touch on the essence of the creative relationships on the basis of which the world literary process takes shape. Each of the national literatures contributes to this process something that is absent in other literatures of the world or exists there in an insufficiently developed form. Reflecting on the process of literary relationships, Leo Tolstoy once remarked: “I think that every people uses different techniques to express a common ideal in art and that thanks to this we experience a special pleasure, again finding our ideal expressed in a new and unexpected way. French art produced on me at one time this very impression of discovery, when I first read Alfred de Vigny, Stendhal, Victor Hugo and especially Rousseau.”
“Holy Russian literature, holy above all in its humanity” (T. Mann), struck the world with sympathy for a humiliated and insulted person. Oscar Wilde, arguing that one of the sources of his own moral renewal was “compassion in Russian novels,” declared in one conversation: “Russian writers? the people are absolutely amazing. What makes their books so great? this is the pity put into their works... Pity? this is the side that reveals the work, that which makes it seem endless.”
The emerging ethical pathos of Russian literature was a consequence of the ineradicable aspiration of its creators towards the ideal of spiritual and moral perfection, i.e. to fulfill the gospel: “Be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect.”
Getting acquainted with Russian literature, readers abroad were amazed by something else: every character, no matter what his social status, has a soul. In other words, Russian classics in the person of Gogol and Turgenev, Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, Chekhov and Leskov once again reminded us that man? not only a physical and intellectual being, he also has a soul, which is often not in order, which can be sick, tormented, suffering and which needs love, pity, compassion. Notable in this regard is the article by the English writer Virginia Woolf “The Russian Point of View”, in which she claims that in Chekhov the essence of his stories can be defined by the words: “The soul is sick; the soul was healed; the soul has not been healed... Reading Chekhov, we find ourselves repeating the word “soul” over and over again... Really, exactly the soul? one of the main characters in Russian literature... Subtle and gentle, subject to a lot of quirks and ailments in Chekhov, it is of much greater depth and scope in Dostoevsky; prone to the most severe diseases and violent fevers, it remains the main subject of attention.”
The role of Russian classical literature in the modern world was also predetermined by the depth of artistic and philosophical understanding of personality problems. The desire of Russian classics to solve the fundamental questions of existence gives their works a special philosophical tension. Heroes of Russian literature, resolving personal issues in their lives, invariably face moral, philosophical and religious problems, which occupy a significant place in the poetry and prose of Lermontov and even in the inherently lyrical plays of Chekhov. The largest representatives of European philosophical thought? from Heidegger to Sartre? claim that the origins of the doctrines they develop are Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, who, in their opinion, touched upon such problems of human existence as the absurdity of existence, human alienation, etc.
Solving the problem of personality, Russian classics showed how the natural human desire to reveal one’s individuality is often transformed into unlimited self-will, predatory egoism, leading not to the flourishing of the individual, but to its spiritual degradation and physical death. Investigating the futility of such forms of self-affirmation, they came to the conclusion that such methods of personal self-realization? fiction, illusion.
Some critics in the West see the artistic and philosophical depth of Russian classics in its struggle with the concept of man as “an uncomplicated, unambiguous being, capable of solving the problems that confront him in a rational way.” English literary critic R. Piece writes about this in a book about Dostoevsky published in Cambridge. This idea is also found in other works of Western researchers who claim that Russian literature breaks with the traditions of the Enlightenment, which perceived man precisely rationalistically. However, the situation is somewhat different. Russian classics of the 19th century, being the heir and continuer of the classical tradition of past eras, including the Enlightenment, significantly expanded and deepened the enlightenment understanding of humanism. What exactly is expansion and deepening? Sometimes a wide variety of answers are given to this question.
Russian classics resisted and continues to resist decadence and modernism, lack of spirituality and despair generated by a sense of the absurdity of existence, the aestheticization of evil, its identification with good, and disbelief in the possibility of victory over evil.
At a time when European consciousness began to show tolerance to the ideas of permissiveness and chosenness, to calls to free oneself from moral bonds, love and compassion, these, as Nietzsche put it, dogmas that supposedly “guide slaves,”? Russian literature, using all possible artistic means, revealed the inhumanity of such theories. She proved the futility and illusory nature of inhumane forms of self-affirmation, the vital necessity of spiritual and moral self-improvement, in which Russian classics saw the purpose and meaning of earthly existence, the key to overcoming the chaos and entropy that reign in modern reality.
The heyday of Russian classics in the 19th century. many foreign researchers call it a “golden age”, a kind of Renaissance, the last and “greatest of all even in comparison with the Italian, German and French Renaissance” (J. McKail). Another English critic M. Murray also noted: “The powerful inspiration that emanated so strangely and majestically from the old poets of the English Renaissance reappears in modern Russian novels.”
Currently, the fact of the universal significance of Russian literature is not only generally recognized, but is the object of close study by both domestic and foreign researchers. And many critics in various countries, analyzing certain phenomena of modern literary reality, invariably turn to the works of Russian classics as unattainable standards in the artistic field.
We find a remarkable assessment of the high achievements of Russian classical literature in M. Gorky. “Our literature is our pride, the best that we have created as a nation,” he declared. The same thought about the remarkable flowering of Russian literature and Russian art of the 19th century. Gorky develops in the following words: “The giant Pushkin is our greatest pride and the most complete expression of the spiritual forces of Russia, and next to him is the magical Glinka and the beautiful Bryullov, Gogol merciless to himself and people, the yearning Lermontov, the sad Turgenev, the angry Nekrasov, the great rebel Tolstoy ; Kramskoy, Repin, the inimitable Mussorgsky... Dostoevsky and, finally, the great lyricist Tchaikovsky and the sorcerer of language Ostrovsky, unlike each other, as only we can have in Rus'... All this grandiose was created by Russia in less than a hundred years. Joyfully, to the point of insane pride, I am excited not only by the abundance of talents born in Russia in the 19th century, but also by their amazing diversity, a diversity that historians of our art do not give due attention to.”
The deep ideological nature and progressiveness of Russian literature were determined by its constant connection with the liberation struggle of the people. Advanced Russian literature has always been distinguished by democracy, which grew out of the struggle against the autocratic serfdom regime.
Particularly noteworthy is the enormous leading role of revolutionary-democratic criticism in Russian literature. And Belinsky, and Chernyshevsky, and Dobrolyubov unerringly led Russian literature forward, showed writers their civic duty and social path, demanded that they pose social issues directly and honestly, and called for the protection of the masses.
We should proudly point out how firmly and consistently the revolutionary democrats defended and explained the originality and greatness of the historical path of Russia and its culture.
We see the same quick and deep response to the events of Russian life in the works of Lermontov, Nekrasov, Turgenev, and all the best writers of the 19th century. Particularly indicative in this regard is the work of I. S. Turgenev, a writer who, in his political views, seemed to be far from revolutionary democratic thought. But what a sensitive response to the public mood of Russia in the 40-70s we find in the author of “Notes of a Hunter”, the novels “Rudin”, “On the Eve”, “Fathers and Sons”, “New”!
By depicting Russian life, our writers thus introduced an affirming principle into literature. But the writer’s dream of a more perfect structure of society can be revealed not only directly, but also through the depiction of negative phenomena that deviate from the norm. Hence the critical portrayal of life by Russian writers, the abundance of negative types in Russian literature, the passionate denunciation of the most diverse shortcomings of Russian reality. It was a form of protest against life’s ugliness, a kind of aspiration forward, into the future.
Chekhov, L. Tolstoy, Gorky - these are three remarkable figures of Russian writers standing on the verge of two centuries - XIX and XX. The names of L. Tolstoy and Chekhov mark the end of Russian literature of the 19th century, the name of Gorky - the beginning of a new, socialist proletarian literature. To talk about Gorky's work means to talk about a new stage of Russian literature - about the stage of socialist realism.
The role of Russian classical literature in the global literary process at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. not least determined by the fact that it contributed to the overcoming of many talented artists from the extremes of naturalism.
Russian literature fiction classic
We find a remarkable assessment of the high achievements of Russian classical literature in Maxim Gorky:
“Our literature is our pride, the best that we have created as a nation...
In the history of the development of European literature, our young literature is an amazing phenomenon; I will not exaggerate the truth by saying that none of the literature of the West has emerged in life with such force and speed, in such a powerful, dazzling brilliance of talent...
The importance of Russian literature is recognized by the world, amazed by its beauty and strength...” “The giant Pushkin is our greatest pride and the most complete expression of the spiritual forces of Russia... Gogol, merciless to himself and people, the yearning Lermontov, the sad Turgenev, the angry Nekrasov, the great rebel Tolstoy... Dostoevsky... the sorcerer of the language Ostrovsky, unlike each other, as only we can have in Rus'... All this grandiose was created by Russia in less than a hundred years. Joyfully, to the point of insane pride, I am excited not only by the abundance of talents born in Russia in the 19th century, but also by their amazing diversity.”
The words of M. Gorky emphasize two features of Russian literature: its unusually rapid flourishing, which already at the end of the 19th century placed it in first place among the literatures of the world, and the abundance of talents born in Russia.
Rapid flourishing and an abundance of talent are striking external indicators of the brilliant path of Russian literature. What features turned it into the most advanced literature in the world? It is her deep ideology, nationality, humanism, social optimism and patriotism.
The deep ideological nature and progressiveness of Russian literature were determined by its constant connection with the liberation struggle of the people. Advanced Russian literature has always been distinguished by democracy, which grew out of the struggle against the autocratic serfdom regime.
The ardent participation of Russian writers in the public life of the country explains quick literature response for all the most important changes and events in the life of Russia. “Sick questions”, “damned questions”, “great questions” - this is how for decades those social, philosophical, moral problems that were raised by the best writers of the past were characterized.
Starting with Radishchev and ending with Chekhov, Russian writers of the 19th century spoke about the moral degeneration of the ruling classes, about the arbitrariness and impunity of some and the lack of rights of others, about social inequality and the spiritual enslavement of man. Let us recall such works as “Dead Souls”, “Crime and Punishment”, Shchedrin’s fairy tales, “Who Lives Well in Rus'”, “Resurrection”. Their authors approached the solution of the most pressing problems of our time from the position of true humanism, from the position of the interests of the people.
No matter what aspects of life they touched, from the pages of their creations one could always hear: “who is to blame,” “what to do.” These questions were heard in “Eugene Onegin” and in “Hero of Our Time”, in “Oblomov” and in “The Thunderstorm”, in “Crime and Punishment” and in Chekhov’s stories and drama.
The idea of the welfare of the people was constantly heard in the works of Russian classics. From this angle they looked at everything around them, at the past and the future. Nationality of our literature constitutes one of its highest ideological and aesthetic achievements.
The nationality of Russian classical literature is inextricably linked with another of its features - patriotism. Anxiety for the fate of their native country, pain caused by the troubles it endured, the desire to look into the future and faith in it - all this was inherent in the great writers of the Russian land.
Russian literature of the 19th century developed along the path of realism, a truthful depiction of reality. Belinsky saw the true truth of life in the works of Pushkin and Gogol; along this path he directed the work of Russian writers. “The hero... of my story, whom I love with all the strength of my soul, whom I tried to reproduce in all his beauty and who has always been, is and will be beautiful, is true,” wrote in “Sevastopol Stories” L.N. Tolstoy. The “sober realism” of Tolstoy, Chekhov, Saltykov-Shchedrin and other Russian writers of the 19th century illuminated all aspects of Russian life with extraordinary breadth and truthfulness.
The realism of Russian literature of the 19th century is mainly critical realism. Critical portrayal of life -“tearing off all and every mask” is one of the strongest aspects of Russian literature of the 19th century. But, while critically depicting reality, Russian writers at the same time sought to embody their ideals in positive images. Coming from a wide variety of social strata (Chatsky, Grisha Dobrosklonov, Pierre Bezukhov), these heroes follow different paths in life, but they are united by one thing: an intense search for the truth of life, the struggle for a better future.
The Russian people are rightfully proud of their literature. The formulation of the most important social and moral issues, deep content that reflected the world-historical importance of the tasks of the Russian liberation movement, the universal significance of images, nationality, realism, and the high artistic perfection of Russian classical literature determined its influence on the literature of the whole world.