What associations do you have with the word "bohemia"? Is it a way of life, a name for an opera, or can a specific group of people be designated by this term? In order to better understand the meaning of this word, you first need to plunge a little into history ...
First there was "gypsy"
At first, as usual, there was a word, and this word was - "gypsy". That is what the translation from the French word "boheme" sounds like. And it all started with the fact that in Paris at the beginning of the 15th century, an unprecedented French, a free and cheerful gypsy tribe arrived from the Austro-Hungarian town of Bohemia. How did the gypsies live from ancient times?
These were nomadic tribes of free people, not constrained by the strict framework of social principles and rules customary for European residents. On the then Parisians, the mores and customs of the new residents made a huge impression. In addition, the gypsies were endowed with the ability to various kinds of arts: they sang beautifully, danced, showed different tricks. In general, getting bored with them was impossible.
The Parisians called the eccentrics bohemian, according to the name of the locality where they came from, and since then this definition has firmly settled in the languages of different peoples, denoting people of a free, nomadic way of life. But modern bohemia is by no means gypsies. What is the meaning of this word now?
Composition by Henri Murgier
And then things were like this: in 1851, a literary work by Henri Murger was born in France entitled "Scenes from the Life of Bohemia." And the characters in this book were by no means gypsies, but the young and poor inhabitants of the Latin Quarter: artists, artists, poets.
This creative youth is not as arranged in everyday life as the gypsy tribe, they occupy the opposite position of the well-fed and primitive life of the French bourgeois. On the one hand, they are part of the working people, but on the other, they still cannot be in constant conflict with the rich society.
Subsequently, based on the work of Henri Murgier, Giacomo Puccini wrote the opera Bohemia, which gained immense popularity around the world. And later, composer Imre Kalman, based on the plot “Scenes from the Life of Bohemia”, released the operetta “Violet of Montmartre”. From now on, the meaning of the word "bohemia" has changed radically.
Modern interpretation of the word
But if we talk about the meaning of this word in our days, then bohemia is no longer the designation of only talented, but poor and unrecognized rebel artists. Today this term is more commonly used when it comes to the most famous, wealthy and, at the same time, extraordinary representatives of various areas of contemporary art.
Rather, it is a peculiar elite of our society: well-known fashion designers, singers, film actors, directors, playwrights, artists, writers and poets. Their bohemian lifestyle gives rise to a lot of gossip and serves as a constant fuel for the most popular and scandalous publications of glossy magazines.
Russian bohemia
And now I would like to talk about the concept of "Russian bohemia." This expression refers to representatives of the creative intelligentsia of the Russian Silver Age. Their desire for creative freedom became a harbinger of the upcoming revolution. Here are a few names of one of the most prominent representatives of Russian bohemia: Sergey Yesenin, Anna Akhmatova, Marina Tsvetaeva, Maximilian Voloshin, Valentin Serov, Konstantin Korovin, Valery Bryusov, Vera Khlebnikova, etc.
In the pre-revolutionary years, these were very young people who were striving to create various creative unions. They looked for new forms of expression and firmly believed that revolution would help create a new, free man. Subsequently, all of them had to endure a strong disappointment, as illusions turned out to be unrealizable.