Pushkin's context of Boris Sadovsky's play "Lisa"

Izumrudov Yurii Aleksandrovich PhD in Philology Associate Professor, Department of Russian Literature, N.I. Lobachevsky National Research Nizhny Novgorod State University 603022, Russia, Nizhegorodskaya oblast', g. Nizhnii Novgorod, pr. Gagarina, 23 izumrud.nnov@mail.ru

1. Introduction

Currently, a scientific edition of the complete works of B.A. Sadovsky is being prepared. This is important because Sadovsky's literary heritage has not yet been sufficiently revealed to the modern reader. A number of his works are scattered in magazines, and some are not published, are stored in archives. The merits of S.V. Shumikhin, a researcher at RGALI, are significant in returning the work of B.A. Sadovsky to readers ^{[1; 2]}. He published collections of prose and poetry by B.A. Sadovsky, which became sources of a number of unknown key texts for researchers. Important archival materials were published in periodicals, in various almanacs, dictionaries ^{[3; 4; 5; 6;7]}. Recently, articles by B.A. Sadovsky "Napoleon in Russian Poetry", "Two Chancellors", the poem "Veniamin Ternovsky", the plays "The Knight of Malta", "Lisa", the story "The Black Ring", correspondence with A.A. Blok, S.N. Durylin, sister E.A. Sadovskaya were introduced into scientific circulation ^{[8; 9; 10; 11]}. The publication of this part of B.A. Sadovsky's legacy was accompanied by comments, however, a deeper scientific study of this previously unknown layer of B.A. Sadovsky's creativity is required in order to fully and in detail present the logic of his work.

The object of the research in this article was the mystery play "Lisa", as well as the metatextually related "Blokovskaya" hoax "Soldier's Tale" and the story "Arakcheevskaya joke".

The aim is to identify the Pushkin context in the play "Lisa", to clarify the nature of B.A. Sadovsky's perception of the Pushkin tradition.

The relevance of this work is due to the fact that it reveals new facts of the literary process of the turn of the XIX-XX centuries; the example of the work of one of the representatives of the literature of the silver Age shows how the writer's system of views and his beliefs are reflected in the work.

2. M etody, review

The article uses comparative typological, biographical methods, as well as the method of intertextual analysis, aimed "at identifying intertextual associative links and techniques that serve to create such links – intertext figures. The techniques of this class include various types of citation, text application, text allusion, as well as paraphrase of text, quotes or winged words" ^{[12, p. 116]}.

The topic of "Sadovskaya and Pushkin" has already become the subject of attention of domestic researchers. The first work in this regard was the article by S.V. Shumikhin "The Practice of Pushkinism" ^[13]. It published archival documents, traced the evolution of Sadovsky's perception of Pushkin's work. The article by S.V. Shumikhin, which has an informative character, became the basis for research in which individual works, lyrical cycles of B.A. Sadovsky were examined in more depth, Pushkin quotes and allusions were identified, a system of motives was compared ^{[14; 15; 16; 17; 18; 19; 20; 21; 22; 23]}. As a result, the decisive influence of Pushkin's creativity on the artistic formation of B.A. Sadovsky was proved. Conceptually important in this regard is the thesis formulated by S.N. Pyatkin: "Pushkin's name <...> is a kind of ideological and artistic center of the artistic world of B. Sadovsky" ^{[23, p. 62]}.

3. The fate of Pushkin in the interpretation of Sadovsky

The Pushkin context of Sadovsky 's works is diverse: there is a direct appeal to the poems of the great poet, and reflections on the facts of his fate, and the variation of his themes and plots ... And, remarkably, this context manifests itself even where Sadovskoy consciously, pointedly abstracts from Pushkin. This trend is characteristic of the mystery play "Lisa", in which Sadovsky decided to portray the Pushkin era without Pushkin, as if erasing him from history. Let's consider this question in more detail.

The play "Lisa", written in 1921, reflects the period of the interregnum – the end of the reign of Alexander I and the beginning of the reign of Nicholas I. This is one of the moments of the era that we now call Pushkin. This is how B. Sadovskaya perceived this era before the revolution of 1917. Pushkin was an aesthetic standard for him, and reliance on the Pushkin tradition largely determined his writing style. "Pushkinist", "Pushkinian" were his usual characteristics. By the way, when the aspiring composer M.M. Bagrinovsky decided to write an opera based on a plot from this era by the centenary of the Patriotic War of 1812, Sadovsky was recommended to him as a possible author of the libretto precisely as a "Pushkin poet" ^[24]. "Pushkin was his god," S.N. Durylin, who knew him well, wrote about Sadovsky ^{[11, p. 388]}. However, after the revolution, Sadovsky's position changed fundamentally – the assessments also changed: Pushkin is now perceived by Sadovsky as a "spiritual nonentity", he should be debunked, forgotten as a false idol of the liberal intelligentsia of the early twentieth century, who plunged Orthodox–sovereign Russia into disastrous revolutionary turmoil. This idea is the starting point in a number of key works by Sadovsky about the origins of the 1917 revolution. Thus, in the story "The Bloody Star" (1919), Pushkin is welcomed by the Dutch envoy (symbolically named "black man"), the main ideologue of Russophobia as the "Voltaire of our days", and soon, in his dying delirium, after his confession of repentance, he hears from him a merciless sentence: "In vain. The son of Mary will not forgive the "Gavriiliad"" ^{[4, p. 21]}. Nicholas I, the ideal ruler for Sadovsky, does not hesitate to burn the manuscripts left after the poet's death. In the novel "The Sixth Hour" written two years later by the "Bloody Star" (the works constitute a kind of dilogy), a negative character is derived – "a writer from St. Petersburg, Osip Chocolate", who "called himself a "Pushkinist"." "All his life he delved into the minutiae of Pushkin's text, compiled articles about Pushkin and lived by it"; for reasons of profit, he converted to Orthodoxy and printed lampoons in a black-hundred newspaper. Under the Bolsheviks, he served them just as prudently. Recommending himself as a "modest man by nature", with "the duty to protect the monuments of native history from fatal and, alas, inevitable excesses," Chocolate desecrated Pushkin's resting place in the Svyatogorsk Monastery; mockingly trampling on the feelings of the abbot of the monastery, handed him a volume of the "Gavriiliad" with a cheeky edification: "This poem originally solves the most important religious problem. I recommend you, venerable Father, to read it. You will see how your spiritual horizons will expand immediately" ^{[7, pp. 31, 32, 34]}.

In the essay "Holy Reaction", a kind of religious and philosophical commentary on the "Sixth Hour", Pushkin's theme finds such a resolution: "In the "Gavriiliad" Pushkin ridiculed Joseph, the betrothed of the Mother of God. The poet mockingly asks him for “carelessness, humility, patience, restful sleep, confidence in his wife, peace in the family and love for one's neighbor.” At that time, he did not suspect the full value of these modest benefits. He got nothing of them as it is, but that's not enough; his wife is innocent, and he is a patent cuckold. So the cunning Satan played the theme of the “Gavriiliad” on his poet. <....> Why was Pushkin offended by the Chamber junkers? Only because he found this title too small for himself. And if the sovereign had made him a chamberlain, he would have been happy and proud" ^{[5, pp. 434-435]}.

And finally, in the novel of the second half of the 1930s. "Wheat and tares", Sadovsky's most ambitious work, which in fact became his author's testament, a lot is said about Pushkin, although the main figure in it is Lermontov. Here, for example, are some of the remarks of the participants of a friendly feast in the apartment of the respectable St. Petersburg writer Nestor Kukolnik: "After all, all his poetry is from a demon. In Pushkin, as in a gilded nut, lies a hell of incredible destructive power; among church people this poison is called temptation. Only its effect will not be affected soon. Oh, not soon!"; "... until now, Europe has been pulling the Christ note, but now someone else, who does not look like Christ, has begun to set the tone. So our Alexander Sergeich enslaved his free muse to this new self-styled kapellmeister"; "He flooded the whole of Russia with lampoons, and at least that. And blasphemy? Yes, abroad he would have been hanged upside down for other poems. The sovereign ordered the statue of Voltaire to be removed from the Hermitage, and he had his own Voltaire at his side, and even in a chamber-junker uniform"; "... the writer began to weaken at the end. Read, for example, "Angelo": just a shame"; "... his epigrams make me sick. Certainly, satanic slander: no wonder the word "devil" in Greek means "slanderer""; "We, of course, will not believe Pushkin that Vorontsov is a scoundrel, but what about our grandchildren?" ^{[6, p. 117]}. These statements of the heroes directly express the point of view of the author himself. Sadovskoy uses a compositional technique, which is based on assemblage, fragmentation, discontinuity. Sadovskaya wrote about this technique to K.I. Chukovsky: "... I embodied the theory of discontinuity in a novel consisting of 150 scraps, as if they were unrelated" ^{[3, p. 192]}. However, the incoherence in this case is purely external. The set of replicas profoundly presented above, "150 scraps", is mounted into the general structure of the narrative by framing paragraphs-phrases: 1. "Incidents in St. Petersburg on January 27: the bites of the Billing spouses by a cat suspected of rabies; a duel between the chamber Junker Pushkin and the lieutenant of the Cavalry Regiment Baron Dantes; poisoning of the keeper of famous women" and 2. "His Majesty the Emperor and His Highness Prince Karl of Prussia on January 27 at the Kamenny Theater deigned to watch the drama "The Moldavian gypsy" and "Grief from the mother-in-law", vaudeville" ^{[6, pp. 116, 117]}. They create a vital, everyday background. Thus, the meaning is given to the contextual series in which the tragedy of the great poet is placed. As a result, the idea is formed that the duel is not a tragedy, but a real vaudeville, the most banal "grief from the mother-in-law".After a few "patches", this motive is reinforced by a new "argumentation". At a dinner party at V.F. Odoevsky's, V.A. Zhukovsky utters words unthinkable in the mouth of a real poet, not mythologized by the author: "Pushkin is guilty before the tsar: he gave his word not to fight, but he started a duel. No matter how you look at it, there are no excuses for Pushkin. <...> The last reason for the duel – an unheard of audacious, vile letter to the old baron – makes Dantes absolutely right. I am a friend of Pushkin and I regret him, but magis amicus veritas (truth is higher than friendship (Latin). – Yu.I.)". And again, the principle of montage, juxtaposition is important: Zhukovsky's judgments are caused by "wine that loosened the tongues" of the participants of the dinner party, at which they consumed "delicious pate of kinel with cockerel scallops, champignons and cancerous necks", "champagne souffle with vanilla", "pineapple ice cream" ^{[6, pp. 122, 123]}. So the fate of the poet was devalued by everyday life, gastronomic details.

4. Pushkin's contexts in the play "Lisa"

Russian Russian history, as we have already pointed out, depicts the Pushkin era, but Pushkin is not mentioned almost ostentatiously, especially when you consider that Sadovskoy always looked at Russian history, Russian life through the prism of aesthetics ^{[9, p. 183]}.

However, Pushkin's "presence" affects a variety of levels of the work: plot-event, style, composition. So, among the characters of the play are two emperors – Alexander I and Nicholas I, who determined important changes in the poet's fate: by the will of Alexander I, Pushkin served exile in Mikhailovsky, and the new emperor in his coronation days granted him freedom, described him as "the smartest man in Russia" ^{[25, p. 393]}, expressed a desire to become his the first reader and personal censor.

The central event of the interregnum era was the Decembrist uprising. It became central in the play "Lisa". The origins, driving forces, and outcome of the conspiracy are the subject of intense thoughts and conversations of all the characters in the work. And first of all A.A. Arakcheeva. Of course, Pushkin's poems, his diary and epistolary notes, biographical facts related to the Decembrist uprising and the perception of Arakcheev appeared in the subtext of the play. Pushkin's position, well known to the reader, somehow correlated with how the characters of the play perceived what was happening.

"Lisa" is written with a clear focus on the tragedy "Boris Godunov", which is manifested at the level of poetics and problematics. So, Sadovskaya, following the example of Pushkin, combines prose and poetic speech, uses caesuric pentameter white iambic. The connection with the Pushkin tragedy can be traced at the ideological and thematic level - in "Lisa" Sadovskaya gives his solution to the problems of the people and the ruler, the destiny and responsibility of the authorities, the duty and fate of the patronymic, the power of tradition, conscience and the "self–standing of man", the predestination of socio-moral cataclysms ... Undoubtedly the roll call of those lines of two works where the voice sounds a sick conscience. In Pushkin, in the monologue of Tsar Boris Godunov, "I have reached the highest power...". In Sadovsky, this theme is developed in the Jester's monologue addressed to Alexander I:

                                            ...Clouds

They are going to Russia. In forests and swamps

At the early dawn, the swans are ringing,

And in the evening there is a black raven over the steppe

Screams and curls. The Orthodox Tsar, –

The sin on you is unforgiving.

Leave the crown and the world, run and repent,

As long as the murdered King

The incorruptible will not shine with power ^{[26, pp. 115-116]}.

And in Arakcheev 's monologue after the news of the involvement of his adopted son Mikhail Shumsky in the conspiracy:

My son is a traitor. It is clear that you will sow,

That's what you'll reap. So I am for Pavel

God punishes. I am right before you,

The Sacred Spirit of the murdered King,

But before the motherland I am a crafty slave,

A lazy slave. And the tares have sprung up

In the Russian field. Lord, have mercy ^{[26, pp. 120-121]}.

Finally, we will point out another implicit fact of Pushkin's "presence" in the play. In the finale of the second act, on the orders of Arakcheev, the choir "peselnikov from the first battalion" performs "settled, with a tambourine":

The sun comes out early,

The sergeant-major walks around the yards.

Arakcheev-commander

He awarded the whole of Russia.

The drums thundered,

The samovars began to boil.

Arakcheev-commander

He awarded the whole of Russia.

I'm in uniform behind the plough

Exactly the father-in-law for the daughter-in-law.

Arakcheev-commander

He awarded the whole of Russia ^{[26, p. 118]}.

This "settled" is a substantially reworked Sadovsky folk version of the song about Arakcheev, recorded by Pushkin in Boldin. Let 's compare it with the lines from the Pushkin text:

... Conversations say,

Everyone scolds Rakcheev:

— You, Mr. Rakcheev,

He ruined the whole of Russia,

Poor people shed tears,

The soldier was glad to die,

I 've been through the roads,

He dug ditches,

Birches sat down,

I shed tears for poor people! ^{[27, pp. 211-212]}.

In Sadovsky's version, an apologetic characteristic of the chief of the Separate Corps of military Settlements, Count A.A. Arakcheev, is given, which was not at all in the popular text. And this characteristic, which is significant, is given through the image of the samovar, which has become mainly a symbol of the play "Lisa" and all of Sadovsky's creativity. This image is associated with the idea of intimate communication, unity, harmony, spiritual affinity, Russianness^[28].

5. The image of Arakcheev in the understanding of Sadovsky

The image-symbol of the samovar and related problems "Lisa" echoes the story "Arakcheevskaya joke" and the hoax "Soldier's Tale", also written by Sadovsky in the 1920s and published in the Soviet press (their counterrevolutionary anti-Bolshevik message was not solved by censors and publishers ^[29]). In both works, Count Arakcheev becomes a significant character. In the story, the young cornet, the "denouncer" of social vices, is at the center of the narrative. He goes "on official business" to Nizhny Novgorod and at one of the postal stations, waiting for horses, invites a traveler to tea – a modest, inconspicuous "old man: a cap over his ears, a red nose, sleepy eyes." He introduces himself as "retired Captain Andreev, a local landowner" ^{[30, p. 58]}, hiding that in fact he is Count Arakcheev. And the conversation over the samovar becomes a prologue to the abruptly changed fate of the main character: he retires, moves to the village, morally transforms. Let us explain that in Sadovsky's artistic system Nizhny Novgorod and the village, as well as the whole Russian province, there is a true, reserved and spiritual world, opposed to the capitals that disfigure human souls.

Another work, The Soldier's Tale (which was created as an artfully veiled polemical response to A. Blok's poem "The Twelve"), shows, in particular, the confrontation at the council of Alexander I of two main dignitaries – General Arakcheev (Arakcheev) and Senator Sperants (Speransky; antihero in Sadovsky's historiosophy) – on the issue, how to deal with Napoleon's malicious plan to send twelve of his marshals to Russia. Arakcheev was right in the end. And marshals who have encroached on the most sacred – Russianness, understanding, consent, Home, Hearth (which corresponds to the image of the samovar), are driven out in disgrace. And then Napoleon himself is crushed ^{[29; 10]}.

Starting from this figurative pair of the "Soldier's Tale", as a starting point for our further reasoning, we will cite Pushkin's diary entry, which became a textbook (and, of course, well-known to Sadovsky) after his visit in April 1834 to the steward of the Second Department of His Imperial Majesty's own Chancellery, a member of the State Council for the Department of Laws M.M. Speransky: "I told him about the wonderful beginning of Alexander's reign: You and Arakcheev stand at the door of the opposite of this reign as Geniuses of Evil and Good" ^{[31, vol. 7, p. 325]}.

So, according to Pushkin's definition, Arakcheev and Speransky act "as Geniuses of Evil and Good." V.A. Tomsinov commented on Pushkin's judgment: "It should be noted that the phrase "genius of Evil" is not at all the same as, say, "evil man." It's not even an “evil genius.” Pushkin wrote in his diary the word “Evil” with a capital letter – therefore, he meant here not the phenomenon itself, but its symbol. Presenting Arakcheev as a "genius of Evil," Alexander Sergeyevich thereby expressed only the idea that this man was a symbol of evil in public opinion!" ^{[32, p. 5]}. In the context of the above, one can think similarly about Speransky – "The Genius of the Good".

As you know, Pushkin already in his younger years actively contributed to the establishment of Arakcheev's reputation as the embodiment of evil. His epigram on the all-powerful temporary worker, which became one of the most important documents of the so-called "Russian secret literature", diverged in many lists:

The oppressor of all Russia,

Governors tormentor

And he's a teacher of advice,

And he is a friend and brother to the tsar.

Full of malice, full of revenge,

Without mind, without feelings, without honor,

Who is he?A devotee without flattery

B... a penny soldier ^{[31, vol. 1, p. 162]}.

Having grown up, having really learned life, Pushkin rethought his attitude to Arakcheev, about which he wrote to his wife, whose soul he especially valued and loved: "Arakcheev died. I am the only one in all of Russia who regrets this. I did not manage to see him and talk to him enough" ^{[32, vol. 10, p. 173]}. The public did not recognize or notice this assessment of Pushkin, even when the letters were published – the ideological factor of time affected. As a result, the theme of "Pushkin and Arakcheev" is revealed unambiguously, in the spirit of the quoted epigram. For this reason, the comments on it in the newest academic edition of his works, prepared by IRLI RAS, seem unsatisfactory. They contain only negative assessments of Arakcheev, and the commentator categorically states: "Contemporaries are unanimous in their [negative] testimony regarding the figure of Arakcheev ..." ^{[33, p. 634]}, without mentioning the evolution of Pushkin in his views on Arakcheev, ignoring the lines from a letter to his wife. There was still no unanimity in the assessment of Arakcheev's personality - historical documents preserved other "testimonies"; another thing is that they were obscured by negative historical and memoir literature about the temporary worker. Similarly, the epigram on Arakcheev is commented on in another large–scale publication of the IRLI of the Russian Academy of Sciences - the Pushkin Encyclopedia, where an actual error is also made. Thus, it is stated: "Pushkin uses the motto "Betrayed without flattery", chosen by Arakcheev himself for his count's coat of arms ..." ^{[34, p. 331]}. However, it is known that this motto was chosen for the coat of arms of Arakcheev by Emperor Alexander I.

So, according to Pushkin's definition, Arakcheev and Speransky are Geniuses of Evil andBenefits. In Sadovsky, this formula takes on the opposite meaning: Arakcheev and Speransky are GeniusesGood and Evil.

In his diary "Notes" Sadovskaya wrote: "Pushkin must be overcome. Now it's easy" ^{[3, p. 178]}. The mystery play "Lisa" is an attempt to "overcome" Pushkin, but by and large it was not possible to portray the Pushkin era without Pushkin, since, even without appearing in the play as a character, Pushkin constantly appeared through explicit and hidden references to his work.

4. Conclusion

The article traces the evolution of Sadovsky's perception of Pushkin's personality and creativity. It is shown that if in the pre–revolutionary period Pushkin was an indisputable authority for him, and his work was an aesthetic standard, then after the revolution there was a cardinal change of assessments. The character of Sadovsky's dialogue with Pushkin in the post-revolutionary period is vividly illustrated by the play "Lisa". Contrary to the original author's desire to fundamentally abstract from Pushkin in the depiction of events and people of the Pushkin era, the Pushkin factor is constantly felt. The reader involuntarily embeds the images of the emperors Alexander I and Nicholas I, the Decembrists, and Arakcheev into the system of Pushkin's perception and assessments. Moreover, the play is written with a clear focus on the tragedy "Boris Godunov". We should also note such an important aspect: to characterize his ideal hero – Count Arakcheev – Sadovskaya uses the folk version of the song about Arakcheev recorded by Pushkin in Boldin, ideologically processing it for his artistic purposes.

The article also discusses the story "Arakcheev's joke" and "Blokov's" prose hoax "Soldier's Tale", which reflect Sadovsky's understanding of Arakcheev's personality. Referring to the diary entries of the writer allows us to conclude that its formation was influenced by Pushkin's judgments about Arakcheev, expressed on the pages of the Diary of 1833-1835 and in a letter to his wife (April 20-22, 1834).