What makes up the image of the homeland for every person living in Russia? Probably, from two components: firstly, the place where he lives, and secondly, from its vastness, from its vast expanses. The second component is perceived naturally as breathing. Poems about Russia, written by the best poets, allow us to expand our understanding of the country, fully fitting into the mentality of Russian people.
The sun of Russian poetry
It is impossible not to say a few words about A.S. Pushkin. If you open a volume of his works, then you can choose poems about Russia, showing it from various sides. But one of the most remarkable, if we speak bluntly and impartially about the homeland, while calmly, without expression, akh and okh, is the “Ruddy critic” (1830).
In it, the poet painted the most accurate image, which is partially alive to the present day: a wretched row of huts, a low sky with thick gray clouds, a couple of miserable trees near the fence, one of which is completely without leaves, the other is just waiting for a blow of the cold north wind to leave the leaves in the puddles. Even the dogs are not visible. Such desolation. “Where is the beauty?” - the author asks. And the gaze sees only the endless plain, blackened under the autumn rains of black soil. Yes, a miserable little man who carries an armchair for a child’s coffin to sing in church and quickly bury him. This is an honest poem about Russia, which does not need special comments. It contains all the truth and pain, hidden under irony. The author is only 31 years old, and he does not close his eyes to anything. It will also openly look and also honestly, but in a different way, write poems about Russia, a genius who appeared after the death of Pushkin.
Let's talk about M. Lermontov
Leaving for the Caucasus, he bitterly says goodbye to an unwashed country, which, like A. Pushkin, is not washed with shampoos, the roads are full of impassable dirt. A disgusting country with slavish submission that permeated Russian society from top to bottom. Nikolaev Russia is one of the most vile versions of the Byzantine Empire, where only a hint of the emperor’s word is the law. He is informed only of what he wants to hear. There is no talk of any human dignity with the apparatus of officials who see everything and listen to everything and are in a hurry to race.
This is not limited to poems about Russia by the poet. A few months later, in the Caucasus, he would look at her differently.
Surprise
Cold as a surgeon’s scalpel, Lermontov’s mind falls silent at the thought of the steppe lands where grass has been silent for centuries, about the swaying of vast forests, about the spills of rivers as vast as the sea. And her glory, stained with blood, her proud peace and treasured, dark legends of ancient times do not respond to the poet’s soul. It is close and dear to him another - a country road, and not on horseback, but in a simple cart in which you can lie down and look at the vast sky, gnaw a straw and wait for the lights in the sad windows of the villages.
What is still dear to the poet
What further does Lermontov write? Russia (the poem "Homeland") appears to be similar and unlike the Pushkin village, which was mentioned above. Could such a Russia, which the poet further describes, appeal to a clean, well-intentioned burgher who even has neat paths in the woods? Yes, never! She is powerful, and wild, and incomprehensible. And this frightens foreigners. But we continue the analysis of the poem. Russia, or rather, rural Russia, which Lermontov loves, is represented by a stubble haze, a wagon train sleeping in the steppe, and a pair of white birches standing on a hill in the middle of a yellow field. He is glad to see modest peasant wealth - complete threshing floor. Even a poor hut with a thatched roof, but not alien to aesthetics (carved shutters on the window), evokes a response in the soul, a joy.
And what foreigner will look at the festive dances with stomping and whistling on a cold dewy evening until midnight, at this violent fun that can frighten with its unmeasured power? All this is close and dear to a truly Russian soul, which knows no limit in anything. The soul is as wide as the open spaces that have grown it.
Aphorisms
The village of Tyutcheva Ovstug was very disposed to fall in love with wide horizons, vast steppes, boundless fields and virgin forests of the Bryansk district. All this created the most poetic atmosphere, which the poet did not forget either in a foreign land or in St. Petersburg. This is how the eldest daughter Anna characterized him.
He was a man with a fiery, brilliant mind, boldly soaring in the realms of thought and especially imagination, but restless and unstable in the field of religious convictions and moral principles. With age, he began to express his thoughts aphoristically, creating small masterpieces from quatrains.
Exceptional creation
As Schopenhauer said, "he who thinks clearly, clearly states." This can be attributed to all the masterpiece cited - “You can’t understand Russia with your mind” (Tyutchev). The poem is fully known to all, there is no doubt about it. It, of course, is interfaced with both Pushkin and Lermontov’s understanding of the country. Lermontov, contrary to reason and reason, loved the Fatherland, and this quatrain says that the mind, when it comes to Russia, has nothing to do with it. She is very special. Western European standards do not fit her. Russia is neither west nor east.
The path, as we have already seen, has its own way, in kinks and upheavals. This has been shown by the twentieth century. Three revolutions, even four, in one century, are not too many for one country? And now, when there was another scrapping, the collapse of the fantastic idea that aroused the imagination of building a new unprecedented world, what remains to be done in the timeless era? Only believe. As Tyutchev said. Indeed, in the 17-30s, Russia cannot be understood by the mind (Tyutchev). The poem fully confirmed this. Then there was a spiritual upsurge on the basis of an absolutely unrealistic idea - building a society of universal equality. And how far did the poet want to look? Perhaps he was prophetic, but he was fond of mysticism, revolving tables, mediums, and foresaw something in his 63 years.
Silver Age Literature
At the end of the 19th century, the old forms of the poetic word broke, and Bryusov stood at the origins of symbolism. He followed and surpassed him as a poet, and thinker, and seer Alexander Blok. The cycle "Homeland" was created for nine years. The bloc came to him two years after the first Russian revolution. In the cycle immediately after “On the Kulikovo Field” is “Russia”. It is probably no coincidence that after the words that the heart cannot live in peace, the previously written poem “Russia” is located, and before it is an appeal - “Pray!” What did Block feel? "Russia" - a poem piercingly tender, although the poet says that he does not know how to regret his homeland. However, his love and admiration for it are synonymous with pity. The first quatrain begins with the image of a road with slack ruts. But the beauty with which people everywhere are trying to surround themselves is revealed in painted knitting needles. And past the gray huts of the impoverished country flicker past, and the beloved Blok wind sings Russian songs. And from this tears come to my eyes, like the first tears of love (comparison), which are painfully responsive in the heart, and which cannot be restrained. He was born here and therefore carefully carries his cross. And the cross is given to us in strength. This is what Block felt. “Russia” is a ruthless poem to some extent, because the lyrical hero agrees that the Motherland should give its beauty to whoever it wants.
But beauty is not simple - robbery. No deceiver can handle this. Just she will add one more concern. But few of them, worries, happened? Motherland-woman is beautiful, but with her patterned scarf pulled down to the very eyebrows, she hides her beauty for the time being.
This is an analysis of the poem "Russia". She is still the same as Lermontov’s - field and forest. And then on the long road the impossible is possible (oxymoron). Let him just glance from under the scarf. And let the coachman's cautious long songs sound. Russia will cope with all the hardships and extortion. How? But who knows? The mind cannot understand Russia. The poem fully agrees with Tyutchev's conclusions - one can only trust in Russia.
Century XIX, XX and XXI - political trends
These are three milestones in our history. When the feudal, then capitalist, and later trying to establish new legal and legal orders broke down, but they, among other things, are based on Stolypin's proposals. That is, nothing new has been invented now, but at least they could be brought to life. But the most important thing that is not currently in the country is that there is no common inspirational idea that people would like to follow. Christianity in all countries is undergoing a period of extinction. And despite the fact that Catholics are trying to reanimate it with a little fervor, it practically fails. Orthodoxy, which is trying to support the government of our country, is also in a deep crisis. Are our spiritual shepherds going to the people? Have they met speakers at rallies? Hardly ever. As a result, people do not have a religious consciousness. And if this is so, then it is replaced by paganism.
They are trying to captivate us with the idea of eternal youth by advertising innovative anti-wrinkle and joint disease remedies, creating a body cult, painting oneself like savages with tattoos. We are returning to the origins, but in a new spiral. A poet in Russia used to mean a lot, a lot more. Perhaps someday a poem, poets of Russia will fill the soul of a Russian person with a new look at familiar things.