On the question of the time of the creation of the Message of M.N. Muravyov to I.P. Turgenev

Solovev Konstantin Anatol'evich Doctor of History Professor, Department of History of State and Municipal Administration, M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University 119991, Russia, g. Moscow, ul. Lomonosovskii Prospekt, 27, of. 2 ksoloviov@spa.msu.ru Other publications by this author

In the first volume of Muravyov's Writings, a book published by A. Smirdin in 1847, the poem "Epistle to E. P. Ivan Petrovich Turgenev" is placed on pages 62-65. Below is the date 1774. In the same collection there are four more poems, indicating the time of writing: "Military Song" (1773), "Eclogue" (1771), "Letter to Theona" (1781) and "Tombstone to Elizabeth Lvovna Naryshkina, who died on July 1, 1793" ^{[1, pp. 7, 11, 53, 68]}. The selective use of dates creates the impression that the publisher knows exactly when these works were written, as opposed to those that are not dated. Accordingly, the date of 1774 is reproduced in the biographies of I.P. Turgenev, from the earliest ^{[2, p. 137]} to the modern ^{[3, p. 59]}. It is also mentioned in publications about M.N. Muravyov and his poetry ^{[4, p. 189]}. In the biography of M.N. Muravyov, written by E.V. Kunts, the question of the dating of the epistle is not understood ^{[5, p. 2018]}.

The "EP" in the title means, of course, "To His Excellency", as indicated in the publication of this message in the series "The Poet's Library" ^{[6, pp. 114-116]}. But in 1774 Ivan Turgenev was twenty-two years old, and he had the rank of lieutenant. You could address him as "Your Honor" and nothing else. In addition, in the final part of the message, the elderly age of the recipient of the message is mentioned twice. The first time:

You, who devoted your youth to military exploits,

In the college of works, the days are gentle, having spent,

Old age is pleasant when you prepare memories.

Second:

There we heard the voice of sweet friendship;

Let him make us happy even in gray hair ^{[6, pp. 114-116]}.

Of course, the insistent mention of old age/gray hair in a seventeen-year-old poet addressing a twenty-two-year-old comrade can be considered a poetic license, but this does not remove the problem of addressing the lieutenant as "his excellency." It can hardly be said that Muravyov wrote his message, introducing his friend as a gray-haired general. These considerations probably led the compilers of the Poet's Library series to specify a double date: 1774 and 1780. And this double date is indicated in the "Dictionary of Russian Writers of the XVIII century" ^{[7, p. 286]}. But in the same article it is noted that in April 1789 Ivan Turgenev was dismissed with the rank of brigadier ^{[7, p. 287]}. And this rank gave the right to be addressed as "Your Excellency," but not as "Your Excellency." There was still one more "step" up to the rank of Major General (or full State councilor), who was called "Excellency".

I.P. Turgenev is a classmate of M.N. Muravyov at the gymnasium of Moscow University, a famous Freemason, a writer who built a military career in his youth, during the Pavlovian times and at the beginning of the reign of Alexander Pavlovich, director of Moscow University. The friendship of the two figures of the Russian Enlightenment had a long history. M.N. Muravyov considered himself entitled to address his comrade in a difficult period of his life, poetically designated in this way:

To serve the fatherland is the supreme vow of souls!

And the duty is to strive for everything, wherever it calls.

But if there are many zealots for glory

I have to give in, or I'll be right.

To annoy with a neglected merit? ^{[6, pp. 114-116]}

This "neglected merit" - that is, a certain insult inflicted on a friend - is the main motive of a poem written in the genre of a "friendly message", one of the founders of which is considered to be M.N. Muravyov ^{[8, p. 84; 4, p. 188]}. And here, it should probably be noted that Muravyov's Epistle is not only a "friendly" message, but also a "comforting" one, created within the framework of a tradition dating back to ancient consolation, "composed to help a person cope with the blows of fate" ^{[9, p. 66]}.

The genre of consolatory epistles, which originated in the third century BC, in the writings of Crantor, and was maximally developed in the epistles of Cicero, Plutarch, and Seneca ^{[9, p. 69]}, and then revived in the culture of the late Middle Ages and early Modern times ^{[27, 28]}, provided for the use of examples taken from past times or from modern times, which allowed the author to "demonstrate the idea that his addressee with his grief is no exception and others have endured such grief courageously, which means he can also endure it" ^{[10, p. 126]}. In our opinion, the characters who appear in Muravyov's message as examples and role models make it possible to clarify the time of the creation of the message, since the story about them helps to demonstrate examples of truly civil behavior in the difficult life situation in which the addressee was. (Note, along the way, that this interpretation of the message's content is not the only one. V.N. Toporov understands it completely differently: as a message about a "free man" ^{[11, p. 568]}. And in this regard, the question of why these particular characters appeared in the message, and not any others, is not raised by Toporov.) It is to them that we will turn.

In order to clarify a situation that requires comforting words, we need the "elder" from this fragment of the Epistle:

This is the elder whom Virgil praised.,

That I watered poppies and roses near Tarentum

And late at night, under the shelter of a domestic,

The tables were burdened with uncurchased brushes, —

Of course, he found happiness in the hut.

And he surpassed the splendor of the grandees in his soul ^{[6, pp. 114-116]}.

Virgil wrote about this elder in book IV of his Georgics. These lines are translated by S.E. Raich:

In a country where a lazy man is hanging in the reeds

The golden fields are watered with black waters,

The elder of Cortsir lived far from his homeland.

A secluded corner of the abandoned land,

Despised by the shepherd, forgotten by agriculture,

And abandoned by Bacchus, the alien was destined.

Seating them there with a caring hand

And vegetables, and poppies, and pancakes, and levka,

Possessions of the poor with rich gifts –

With unsold goods, he equaled the kings..." ^{[12, p. 131]}

The image of the elder is an illustration to the initial reasoning of the epistle, represented in a concentrated form by the line: "Without pride, great and important without ranks." But the most important, in our opinion, is the traditional motive for leaving for the countryside at the end of the XVIII and beginning of the XIX centuries (crossed out in Raich's translation by the phrase "the alien was the lot") – from secular life and urban "hustle". This is how this motif is revealed in Derzhavin's 1802 poem. "Village life":

What do I care about hail?

I live in the village.;

I don't need ribbons and stars.,

I have no reputation as a nobleman;

That's all I'm trying to do.,

To live happily ever after;

Hugging everyone,

And I want to love everyone ^{[13, pp. 289-290]}.

Half a century earlier, in Sumarokov's 1756 idyll "Sing, Little Birds, you are Free," rural labor appeared as beneficial:

A farmer rests on a hot afternoon

And in the shade, my dear sweetly remembers,

He works on a plow every day.,

He'll go home in the evening

And in his beloved's bed

He falls asleep after his labors... ^{[14, p. 153]}

But the closest thing to Muravyov's interpretation of rural labor is, of course, Bogdanovich's poems "Letter from a Villager to a Military commander (1789).:

My friend! I know you're wearing a colorful dress.,

At least sheathed in gold from head to toe,

Although your happiness is always noticeable to others,

You rarely rest with laurels.

And maybe I'm at peace with my neighbor.,

Mostly I work for myself,

Calm when going to bed, happy at lunch,

I find myself happier than you more often.;

No one is hurting me in this situation.;

And envy itself is silent, seeing my work;

No one humiliates me, my friend.,

Am I willing to pay tribute or am I being charged,

It is always my hand that provides the other,

And people don't lie about me in vain ^{[15, p. 178]}.

The example of the "elder" taken from Virgil is a reference to the tradition of praising rural labor and rural life, which was well–established in the literature of the second half of the XVIII century (going back, of course, to the views of J.J. Rousseau ^{[16, p. 126]}). And this praise is, at the same time, a consolation in difficult circumstances of life, when the addressee must be in the village.

In Turgenev's biography, the circumstances for going into private life were formed twice. For the first time, he himself resigned from military service and received it (along with the rank of brigadier) on April 21, 1789. He was married at the time, he already had two sons, and a third was expected. Family life then seemed preferable to continuing service. Since the summer of 1788, he lived on his estate ^{[7, p. 287]}. And this stay in the village, regardless of his wishes, dragged on until 1796. The fact is that in 1792, on the instructions of the Empress, an investigation was conducted into the case of the Moscow "Martinists". The result of this investigation was disgrace for I.P. Turgenev (one of the major figures of Russian Freemasonry in the circle of N.I. Novikov). On August 31, 1792, he "was sent to his villages to live permanently" ^{[2, p. 164]}. With the accession of Paul I, he returned to service as director of Moscow University. At the same time, he received the rank of full state councilor, which gave him the right to be called "Your Excellency."

The second resignation took place in 1803. It was forced and extremely distressing. On January 24, 1803, the Decree of Emperor Alexander I "On the establishment of schools" was issued. This decree introduced the university management system, which included two key positions: the trustee of the educational district and the rector of the university ^{[17, p. 439]}. There was no position of university director in the new structure, and at the end of the same year Turgenev left the service.

Accordingly, we have two events in which I.P. Turgenev: a) had to live a private life and b) needed consolation. This is the exile to the countryside in 1792 and the resignation in 1803. Two other characters mentioned in the message will help to understand more precisely what event could have been meant. Unlike the nameless "elder", these are historical figures whose lives (or words) have acquired symbolic meaning.

In the Epistle, Muravyov refers to the image of Lucius Aemilius Paul. He was a Roman general who was twice elected consul: in 219 and 216 BC. He subjugated Illyria and was rewarded with a triumph. He is best known for his glorious death at the Battle of Cannae, as many historians, in particular Polybius, have written about.: "At that very time, Lucius Aemilius, who was seriously wounded, fell in battle, a man who always served his fatherland honestly until the last minute, as befits everyone" ^{[18, p. 334]}. But Muravyov, in his message, shifts the focus to family life.:

An attentive husband and a loving father,

He is invested with power according to the choice of the hearts;

Happy who can be a family benefactor

Well, the house or the whole world is a witness.

Such is Emilius Paulus, equally worthy of praise,

How he lived in his family or how he fell at Cannes ^{[6, pp. 114-116]}.

Maxim Valerius presents this side of the image of Lucius Aemilius Paulus: "Aemilius Paulus is the most famous example of a happy father who suddenly became the most unhappy. Of his four sons, two were exceptionally handsome and gifted, and he gave them up for adoption to the Corneliev and Fabiev families, thus decisively abandoning them, while fate took the other two away. One of them was three days ahead of his father's triumph by his death, and the other, seen on the triumphal chariot, died three days later. And so Pavel, who had so many children that he even gave up two, suddenly became childless and abandoned. With what strength of spirit he suffered this loss, he told himself, speaking to the people. “Having reaped the fruits of such great happiness, Quirites," he said, "and fearing that Fortune would do us some harm, I prayed to Jupiter the Best and Greatest, Queen Juno and Minerva, so that if any threats should befall the Roman people, may they befall my house. And everything turned out well. Thanks to my prayers, they made you grieve for my misfortune rather than I for yours" ^{[19, pp. 249-250]}. Let us pay attention here to the fact that the example of Aemilius Paul was once used by Cicero in his "Consolation" ^{[20, pp. 158-159]}.

If we try to find something in common between Emili Pavel and Turgenev, then this is the loss of both sons. In the summer of 1803, I.P. Turgenev's son Andrey died. This is how V.A. Zhukovsky wrote about this to Ivan Petrovich: "I don't think and I don't want to comfort you. I feel my loss and yours too much. It was only today that I found out about my impiety. What to do? My heart is breaking, but grief and tears won't bring it back. Ah, the blow is so unexpected! He was so worthy of life! Why are we being punished by losing him? Now, I confess, life has lost most of its charm for me: most of my hopes have disappeared" ^{[21, p. 286]}.

The grief that befell the family can be understood from the letters of Alexander Ivanovich Turgenev, who was studying at the University of Göttingen at that time. On August 19, he writes to his parents and brothers: "Little by little, I'm getting to know the idea that he's gone. I am not afraid to indulge in thoughts and memories; I have only one feeling of eternal affection for my only friend, which still seems to live for me and will live forever; imagination does not darken my mental strength" ^{[21, pp. 109-110]}. And in the next letter, on September 14: "From my letters, you are pleased to see whether I am patiently bearing the blow that deprived me of my support; my hope was in him in all the nasty cases of our poor life. Just be calmer; do not give up the few comforts that God has pleased you to leave; then I will find enough courage in myself to support your old age" ^{[21, p. 110]}.

A.F. Merzlyakov, one of the active participants in the youth literary circle formed with the participation of the entire Turgenev family, wrote a letter of consolation to Alexander Turgenev: "What should we do, my dear friend Alexander Ivanovich, what should we do? Who can tell us why we are all orphaned? Who can tell the reason why a father who has been doing good for sixty years is suffering, why brothers and friends are suffering, who were united by the only desire to become like their father?" ^{[21, p. 284]}. The death of his son, which caused a wave of sympathy among family friends, explains, in our opinion, the relevance of referring to the image of Emili Pavel, who stoically endured the loss of his sons.

And finally, the third of those characters that are used as examples for the addressee of the message is Pedaret (Pedarit). In Sparta at the end of the fifth century, he served as the garrison commander of Chios ^{[22, p. 393]}. According to Thucydides, he commanded a military detachment of the Chians during the Peloponnesian War and fell in battle with the Athenians ^{[23, p. 365]}. Muravyov, on the other hand, relied not on Thucydides' story, but on one fragment from Plutarch's "Sayings of the Spartans": "When he was not enlisted in the squad of the three Hundred, which was considered the most honorable in the Spartan army, Pedaret left, smiling cheerfully. The ephors called him back and asked him why he was laughing. "I am glad," he replied, "that there are three hundred citizens in the state who are better than me" ^{[24, p. 321]}. In the message of the Ants, this scene is presented as follows:

"Of the three hundred idle seats of the Spartan Council

The people did not choose Pedaret for any of them.

“Thank the gods," he said, not blaming the people., —

There are three hundred people more worthy than me" ^{[6, pp. 114-116]}.

Plutarch is talking about a special detachment of "300 horsemen" (hippies), who guarded the king during a military campaign and performed "police functions" in special cases ^{[25, p. 22]}. Formally, the "300 squad" corresponds to the concept of "guard". But in Turgenev's biography there is no episode of non-enlistment in the guard. But there is another one. After the beginning of transformations in the management structure of higher education, I.P. Turgenev wrote (February 3, 1803) to a member of the Secret Committee, N.N. Novosiltsev: "Your Excellency, I most humbly ask you to take upon yourself a respectable job and, where possible and as much as possible, try to avert from me the undeserved displeasure of being thrown out of the place from which the suburb my P. Ivan Fonvizin, who brought no more benefit to the university than I did, was put in the Senate" ^{[21, p. 479]}.

The concern that he would lose the position of director, even before it was abolished, was caused by the fact that Turgenev had a conflict with one of the curators of the university, P.I. Golenishchev-Kutuzov ^{[2, p. 68]}. Turgenev's friend and colleague in Masonic activities, Senator I.V. Lopukhin, took over the appointment of Turgenev to the senate, and addressed this to the Minister of Public Education P.V. Zavadovsky and the Minister of Justice G.R. Derzhavin ^{[21, pp. 480-481]}. But Turgenev did not get the senator's seat. When he retired on November 21, 1803 ^{[26, p. 321]}, he had to settle for a pension in the amount of his previous salary, the rank of Privy councilor and the Order of St. Nicholas. Anna ^{[21, p. 170]}.

So, three images/examples of Muravyov's "comforting" message point us to a combination of three ills: resignation (the example of the elder), the death of his son (the example of Emilius Pavel), and failure to obtain a position in the Senate (the example of Pedaret). All of them relate to that period in I.P. Turgenev's life when all the troubles came together.: It is the autumn of 1803. And it was at this time that the communication between Muravyov and Turgenev was both close and professional. I.P. Turgenev, leaving the post of director of Moscow University, had to give a report to the new head, the first trustee in the history of the university. Namely, this position (along with the post of comrade Minister of Education) was occupied by M.N. Muravyov. This communication between them is the motive for the appearance, in the last part of the message, of the image of the Moscow University of those years when both the author and the addressee of the message were young men and could not imagine that they would be university leaders "in gray hair". And one more consideration: in the enumeration of the disasters that overtook Turgenev, there is not a word about his illness. And Turgenev, after his retirement, was ill for the whole of 1904, was treated for a long time, went "to the waters" and hoped for a full recovery, but in January 1906 he "received a blow" from which he never recovered ^{[2, p. 170]}. Accordingly, it can be assumed that the message was written in the late autumn of 1803 or at the very beginning of 1804. The proposed dating makes it possible to better understand not only the circumstances of I.P. Turgenev's life and his relationship with his long–time friend and fellow student at Moscow University, M.N. Muravyov, but also, perhaps, to give a certain impetus to the study of the figurative structure of comforting messages written in Russia at the end of the XVIII - beginning of the XIX centuries.