Nikolai Alekseevich Pleshcheev, whose biography will be briefly outlined in the article, is a prominent representative of the Russian intelligentsia of the 19th century. He was a novelist, poet, translator, literary critic, and revolutionary.

The beginning of life

Pleshcheev's life was full of events, rich in memorable facts. The writer was born in a family that belonged to an old noble family. This joyful event took place at the beginning of the winter of 1825 in Kostroma. Since 1826, the family lived in Nizhny Novgorod, where the father of the future poet was transferred to the state service. However, soon the head of the family dies, and the boy remains in the care of his mother.

In 1839, the future poet Pleshcheev moved with her to live in St. Petersburg. Here he decides to devote his life to military service and goes to study at the School of Guards Ensigns and Cavalry Junkers. But, having studied at an educational institution for two years, the young man realizes that this is not his destiny. He leaves his studies and enters the St. Petersburg University at the Faculty of History and Philosophy. Oriental languages become the subject of his study.

Pleshcheev's circle of acquaintances by this time was already very wide, despite his young age. He is familiar with such famous people as Pletnev, Grigorovich, Kraevsky, Goncharov, Dostoevsky, Saltykov-Shchedrin.

Social activity

In the middle of the 19th century, it was considered prestigious among the youth of the nobility to be members of various social movements, circles, and parties. The young Pleshcheev did not stay away from modern trends. The biography of the poet is full of information about his participation in such organizations, including revolutionary ones. All these hobbies were passionate and had a direct impact on the fate of the poet.
So, for example, being under the influence of Beketov, who led one of the student circles, Pleshcheev lost interest in studying and left the university in 1845 without completing his studies. At the same time, he began attending meetings of the Petrashevsky circle. But the young poet had a special attraction to Durov's circle, where not so much political as literary interests prevailed.

Early work

Pleshcheev's poems began to appear in print from 1844, mainly in such well-known publications at that time as Domestic Notes, Sovremennik, Literaturnaya Gazeta, Library for Reading. In the poems belonging to the early period of creativity, the influence of the works of Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov is clearly felt.

Pleshcheev's poetry is characterized by motives of sadness, loneliness, romance. In the second half of the forties, the poet's lyrics are filled with the energy of protest, a call to fight against injustice and oppression. The revolutionary nature of Pleshcheev's poems did not go unnoticed by both admirers of his talent and the authorities.

Years of exile

In 1849, in Moscow, along with other freethinkers who belonged to the Petrashevites, Pleshcheev was also arrested. The biography of the poet was replenished with another page of life. After his arrest, he was taken to the Peter and Paul Fortress of St. Petersburg, where he was imprisoned for about eight months. On December 22, on Semyonovsky parade ground, he was awaiting execution, which at the very last moment was replaced by four years of hard labor, deprivation of all rights to inherit his fortune and military rank.

Pleshcheev was sent to the city of Uralsk, in a separate Orenburg corps, as a private. Since 1852, the service was held in Orenburg, where for special merits he was elevated to the rank of non-commissioned officer, and in 1856 the officer rank was restored. In 1857, the title of nobleman was also returned to Nikolai Alekseevich Pleshcheev.

During the years of exile, the poet comes close to people who are close to him in spirit, such as the poet Mikhailov, Polish revolutionaries. The poet's lyrics also change. Sincerity appears in the verses, one feels one's own view on some aspects of life. At the same time, a cycle of poems related to love lyrics was born. They were dedicated to the future wife of Nikolai Alekseevich.

After the link

The years of the life of the poet Pleshcheev can be divided into two periods - before and after the exile. The time spent in harsh conditions only tempered the character of the poet, but did not force him to change his progressive ideas.

In 1858, Pleshcheev arrived in St. Petersburg and met Dobrolyubov, Chernyshevsky, and Nekrasov here. In 1859 he moved to live in Moscow. Here he is actively engaged in literary activities. The most famous representatives of the Russian intelligentsia, such as Leo Tolstoy, Nikolai Nekrasov, Ivan Turgenev, Pyotr Tchaikovsky and many other writers, poets, actors, musicians, attended the creative evenings that Pleshcheev arranged in his house.

Educational work

Many years of Pleshcheev's life were devoted to educational activities, which had a pedagogical focus. In 1861, together with Berg, he published an anthology "Children's Book", in 1873, in collaboration with Alexandrov, a collection for children appeared, which contained the best works of Russian classical and modern literature. In addition to literary publications, on the initiative of Pleshcheev, educational and educational collections on geography are published. In total, seven books of various subjects were prepared and published.

Prose writer and translator

In those years of Pleshcheev's life, when he worked as a translator, all his literary talent manifested itself. Many poetic translations from French, German, English, Slavic languages, made by Nikolai Alekseevich, are still considered the best. Often the poet took on works that no one had translated into Russian before him. Pleshcheev also owns some scientific translations on historical and sociological topics. Literary criticism was also of interest to Nikolai Alekseevich, it is given a special place in his work.

Throughout his creative activity, the poet did not leave work on prose. But I must say that the works he created did not go beyond the traditions existing at that time. Some of the stories and novellas can be called autobiographical.

Speaking about the fact that the years of the life of the poet Pleshcheev were filled with bright events, meetings, acquaintances, hobbies, one cannot but say about Nikolai Alekseevich's passion for the theater. Pleshcheev himself was an excellent reader. He understood and loved theatrical art. From the poet's pen came plays that were staged on the stages of the country's leading theaters.

literary heritage

Nikolai Alekseevich Pleshcheev, whose biography can only arouse the admiration of descendants, left behind a rich cultural heritage.

Pleshcheev's original and translated poems fascinate with their melodiousness. That is why they did not go unnoticed by such great composers as Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, Cui, Grechaninov, Rachmaninov. More than a hundred poetic works of the poet have been set to music, being examples of art. About 13 original and 30 translated theatrical plays are written by Nikolai Alekseevich. Some of them are still included in the repertoire of the theaters of the country.
Hundreds of Pleshcheev's poetic works are published in collections. Many, having become classics, are included in anthologies on literary reading.

Pleshcheev's life was cut short on September 26, 1893 in Paris, but Nikolai Alekseevich was buried in Moscow.

Date of birth: December 4, 1825
Place of birth: Kostroma, Russian Empire
Date of death: October 8, 1893
place of death: Paris, France

Alexey Nikolaevich Pleshcheev- Russian poet. Alexey Pleshcheev was born on December 4, 1825 in Kostroma in the family of a nobleman serving under the governors.

There were many writers in the family. Alexei spent his childhood in Nizhny Novgorod, where he studied at home with the help of his mother. During his studies, he studied 3 languages, and at the age of 13 he left for St. Petersburg and began studying at the St. Petersburg school of guards ensigns, in which he did not like it, and in 1843 he left it.

Then he began to study at St. Petersburg University and study oriental languages. Maikov, Dostoevsky, Goncharov and Saltykov-Shchedrin studied with him.

Even then, the first signs of his talent appeared, which was noticed by the rector of the university Kraevsky and part-time publisher of Sovremennik. In 1845 he joined the Butashevich-Petrashevsky circle and became a socialist.

In 1846 he became a member of the Beketov brothers' circle together with Maikov and Grigorovich. There he met Dostoevsky, who later dedicated his novel White Nights to him.

In 1845, Pleshcheev left the institute, because he could not pay for it, and a year later he published the first collection of poems, Call of Friends, and soon Forward without fear and doubt.

From 1847 to 1849, he was published in the Otechestvennye zapiski magazine, and soon he began to be recognized and was nicknamed the fighter poet, the first Russian poet who spoke about the events in France.

In 1848, he wrote a New Year's poem, but due to censorship, it was published only in 1861.

Toward the end of the 1840s, Pleshcheev tries himself as a prose writer - he writes Stories and Novels. The most famous were the Raccoon coat and Prank.

In 1849, Pleshcheev sent Dostoevsky a copy of the forbidden work Belinsky's Letter to Gogol, for which he was arrested and spent almost a year in the Peter and Paul Fortress, and then sentenced to death.

But in December of the same year, having arrived at the place of execution, she was replaced by 4 years of hard labor in Orenburg, where Pleshcheev soon became a private in the local military corps.

In January 1850, he arrived in the Orenburg region, where he stayed for 8 years, 7 of which he spent as a soldier. In exile, he met Count Perovsky, Taras Shevchenko, Mikhail Zhemchuzhnikov and Mikhailov.

In 1853, Pleshcheev, on his own initiative, transferred service in Turkestan with his friend Serovsky, during the campaign he became an ensign and retired with the rank of collegiate registrar.

Soon he began to work in the border commission of Orenburg, and in September 1858 in the office of the local governor. At the same time, he was published in the Russian Bulletin, where he regularly sent poems.

In 1857 he married, and a year later he left for St. Petersburg, where he began to continue his work.

In 1858, his second collection of poems was published, and a year later he moved to Moscow and began to publish regularly in Sovremennik. In addition to this magazine, he published his poems in the Russian Word, Time, the Vek newspaper and many others. In December 1859 he became a member of the Society of Lovers of Russian Literature and again began to write short stories.

The stories were autobiographical with elements of satire. Soon he organized the newspaper Moskovsky Vestnik in collaboration with Turgenev, Ostrovsky, Saltykov-Shchedrin, Tolstoy and Chernyshevsky, and soon the first work of Pleshcheev appeared in the newspaper - a translation of Shevchenko's dream.

In 1866, Sovremennik closed, and Pleshcheev focused on his publications, holding literary evenings in his house.

Where he invited eminent poets and writers. Then he again turned to politics under the influence of the reform of 1861, which he first accepted with enthusiasm, but then revised his views.

Because of politics, he stopped publishing in the Russian Bulletin, and in 1863, after the trial of Chernyshevsky, he wrote an angry poem.

When rumors began to spread that Pleshcheev belonged to the secret organization Earth and Will, the poet himself denied involvement in it.

In parallel with political activity, Pleshcheev in the 1860s published 2 collections of novels and short stories and 2 collections of poems. But, unfortunately, literary activity did not bring much income, so in 1864 he was forced to work as an auditor of the control chamber at the Moscow post office.

In 1868, at the invitation of Nekrasov, Alexei Nikolaevich went to St. Petersburg and took the place of secretary of the editorial board of the Otechestvennye zapiski magazine, where he worked until 1884. In 1884, after the magazine was closed, he founded his own magazine, Severny Vestnik, which existed until 1890.

In the 1880s he wrote many poems, translated them from French and German, and truly revealed himself as a poet.
In 1887, his complete works were published.

In the last years of his life, he writes in the children's direction, and in 1861 he published the Children's Book reader.

In 1890, Pleshcheev received an inheritance from his relative and moved to Paris, where he lived the last years of his life.

Achievements of Alexey Pleshcheev:

Many poems and prose, many poems are based on songs and romances
13 plays
Children's works, anthologies and manuals

Dates from the biography of Alexei Pleshcheev:

December 4, 1825 - was born in Kostroma
1838-1843 - training at the school of guards ensigns
1843-1845 - studying at St. Petersburg University
1846 - the first collection of poems
1849 - arrest
1850-1858 - exile in Orenburg
1868-1884 - work in the journal Otechestvennye zapiski
1890 - moving to Paris
October 8, 1893 - died

Interesting facts of Alexey Pleshcheev:

Was acquainted with Tchaikovsky and Chekhov
Supported young aspiring writers
Established the fund named after Belinsky, named after Chernyshevsky
Funded by the magazine Korolenko Russian Wealth
Married twice, had 4 children

Alexei Nikolaevich Pleshcheev was born in Kostroma on November 22 (December 4), 1825, into an impoverished noble family that belonged to the ancient Pleshcheev family (St. Alexy of Moscow was among the poet's ancestors). The family honored literary traditions: there were several writers in the Pleshcheev family, including the famous writer S. I. Pleshcheev at the end of the 18th century.

The poet's father, Nikolai Sergeevich, served under the Olonets, Vologda and Arkhangelsk governors. A. N. Pleshcheev’s childhood passed in Nizhny Novgorod, where since 1827 his father served as a provincial forester. After the death of Nikolai Sergeevich Pleshcheev in 1832, his mother, Elena Aleksandrovna (née Gorskina), was engaged in raising her son. Until the age of thirteen, the boy studied at home and received a good education, having mastered three languages; then, at the request of his mother, he entered the St. Petersburg school of guards ensigns, moving to St. Petersburg. Here, the future poet had to face the "stupefying and corrupting" atmosphere of the "Nikolaev militarism", which forever settled in his soul "the most sincere antipathy." Having lost interest in military service, Pleshcheev left the school of guards ensigns in 1843 (formally, having resigned "due to illness") and entered St. Petersburg University in the category of oriental languages. Here, Pleshcheev's circle of acquaintances began to take shape: the rector of the university, P. A. Pletnev, A. A. Kraevsky, the Maykovs, F. M. Dostoevsky, I. A. Goncharov, D. V. Grigorovich, M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin.

Gradually, Pleshcheev made acquaintances in literary circles (established mainly at soirees in the house of A. Kraevsky). Pleshcheev sent his very first collection of poems to Pletnev, rector of St. Petersburg University and publisher of the Sovremennik magazine. In a letter to J.K. Grot, the latter wrote:

In 1845, A. N. Pleshcheev, carried away by socialist ideas, met through the Beketov brothers with members of the circle of M. V. Butashevich-Petrashevsky, which included writers - F. M. Dostoevsky, N. A. Speshnev, S. F. Durov , A. V. Khanykova. These days N. Speshnev had a great influence on Pleshcheev, whom the poet later spoke of as a man of "strong will and an extremely honest character."

The Petrashevites paid considerable attention to political poetry, discussing questions of its development on Fridays. It is known that at a dinner in honor of Ch. Fourier, a translation of Beranger's Les fous, a work dedicated to the utopian socialists, was read. Pleshcheev not only took an active part in the discussions and creation of propaganda poems, but also delivered forbidden manuscripts to the circle members. Together with N. A. Mordvinov, he undertook the translation of the book of the ideologist of utopian socialism F.-R. de Lamenne's "The Word of the Believer", which was supposed to be printed in an underground printing house.

In the summer of 1845, Pleshcheev left the university due to a cramped financial situation and dissatisfaction with the very process of education. After leaving the university, he devoted himself exclusively to literary activity, but he did not give up hope of completing his education, intending to prepare the entire university course and pass it as an external student. At the same time, he did not interrupt contacts with the members of the circle; Petrashevites often met at his house; Pleshcheev was perceived by them as "a poet-fighter, his Andre Chenier."

In 1846, the first collection of the poet's poems was published, which included the popular poems “At the Call of Friends” (1845), as well as “Forward! without fear and doubt ... ”(nicknamed“ Russian Marseillaise ”) and“ In terms of feelings, we are brothers with you ”; both poems became anthems of the revolutionary youth. The slogans of the Pleshcheev anthem, which later lost their sharpness, had a very specific content for the poet's peers and like-minded people: “teaching of love” was deciphered as the teaching of the French utopian socialists; “valiant feat” meant a call to public service, etc. N. G. Chernyshevsky later called the poem “a wonderful anthem”, N. A. Dobrolyubov characterized it as “a bold call, full of such faith in oneself, faith in people, faith to a better future." Pleshcheev's poems had a wide public response: he "began to be perceived as a poet-fighter."

V. N. Maikov, in a review of the first collection of Pleshcheev’s poems, wrote with special sympathy about the poet’s faith in “the triumph on earth of truth, love and brotherhood”, calling the author “our first poet at the present time”:

Poems and stories by A. Pleshcheev, who during these years was charged with faith in the coming kingdom of "human cosmopolitanism" (as Maikov put it), were also published in Otechestvennye Zapiski (1847-1849).

Pleshcheev's poetry turned out to be in fact the first literary reaction in Russia to the events in France. In many ways, this is precisely why his work was so valued by the Petrashevites, who set as their immediate goal the transfer of revolutionary ideas to domestic soil. Subsequently, Pleshcheev himself wrote in a letter to A.P. Chekhov:

The poem “New Year” (“Clicks are heard - congratulations ...”), published with a “secret” subtitle “Cantata from Italian”, was a direct response to the French Revolution. Written at the end of 1848, it could not deceive the vigilance of the censorship and was published only in 1861.

In the second half of the 1840s, Pleshcheev began to publish as a prose writer: his stories “Coon coat. The story is not without morality” (1847), “Cigarette. True incident "(1848)," Protection. Experienced History” (1848) were noticed by critics, who found the influence of N.V. Gogol in them and attributed them to the “natural school”. In the same years, the poet wrote the novels Prank (1848) and Friendly Advice (1849); in the second of them, some motifs of the story “White Nights” dedicated to Pleshcheev by F. M. Dostoevsky were developed.

Link

In the winter of 1848-1849, Pleshcheev arranged meetings of the Petrashevites at his home. They were visited by F. M. Dostoevsky, M. M. Dostoevsky, S. F. Durov, A. I. Palm, N. A. Speshnev, A. P. Milyukov, N. A. Mombelli, N. Ya. Danilevsky (future conservative author of the work "Russia and Europe"), P. I. Lamansky. Pleshcheev belonged to the more moderate part of the Petrashevites. He was left indifferent by the speeches of other radical speakers who replaced the idea of a personal God with "truth in nature", who rejected the institution of family and marriage and professed republicanism. He was a stranger to extremes and sought to harmonize his thoughts and feelings. An ardent passion for new socialist beliefs was not accompanied by a decisive rejection of one's former faith and only merged the religion of socialism and the Christian doctrine of truth and love of one's neighbor into a single whole. No wonder he took the words of Lamenne as his epigraph to the poem “Dream”: “The earth is sad and dry, but it will turn green again. The breath of evil will not forever sweep over her like a scorching breath. .

In 1849, while in Moscow (house number 44 on 3rd Meshchanskaya Street, now Shchepkin Street), Pleshcheev sent F. M. Dostoevsky a copy of Belinsky's letter to Gogol. The police intercepted the message. On April 8, on the denunciation of the provocateur P. D. Antonelli, the poet was arrested in Moscow, transferred to St. Petersburg under guard and spent eight months in the Peter and Paul Fortress. 21 people (out of 23 convicted) were sentenced to death; among them was Pleshcheev.

On December 22, together with the rest of the condemned Petrashevites, A. Pleshcheev was brought to the Semenovsky parade ground to a special civil execution scaffold. A staging followed, which was later described in detail by F. Dostoevsky in the novel The Idiot, after which the decree of Emperor Nicholas I was read, according to which the death penalty was replaced by various terms of exile to hard labor or to prison companies. A. Pleshcheev was first sentenced to four years of hard labor, then transferred as a private to Uralsk in the Separate Orenburg Corps.

On January 6, 1850, Pleshcheev arrived in Uralsk and was enlisted as an ordinary soldier in the 1st Orenburg linear battalion. March 25, 1852 he was transferred to Orenburg in the 3rd line battalion. The poet's stay in the region lasted eight years, of which seven he remained in military service. Pleshcheev recalled that the first years of service were given to him with difficulty, largely due to the hostile attitude of the officers towards him. “At first, his life in a new place of exile was downright terrible,” testified M. Dandeville. Vacations were not granted to him, there was no question of creative activity. The steppes themselves made a painful impression on the poet. “This boundless steppe expanse, expanse, callous vegetation, dead silence and loneliness are terrible,” wrote Pleshcheev.

The situation changed for the better after the Governor-General Count V. A. Perovsky, an old acquaintance of his mother, began to patronize the poet. Pleshcheev got access to books, became friends with the family of Lieutenant Colonel (later General) V. D. Dandeville, who was fond of art and literature (to whom he dedicated several poems of those years), masks of Kozma Prutkov by A. M. Zhemchuzhnikov and revolutionary poet M. L. Mikhailov.

"Before leaving"
Pleshcheev's poem of 1853, published with the dedication "L. Z. D. ”, was addressed to Lyubov Zakharyevna Dandeville, the wife of Lieutenant Colonel Dandeville.
Spring again! Again a long way!
There is an anxious doubt in my soul;
Involuntary fear squeezes my chest:
Will the dawn of liberation shine?
Does God command to rest from grief,
Ile fatal, destructive lead
Put an end to all aspirations?
The future does not give an answer ...
And I go, obedient to the will of fate
Where is my star leading me?
To the desert land, under the skies of the East!
And I only pray that I be remembered
To the few that I loved here...
Oh, trust me, you are the first of them...
The poet sent it to the addressee before leaving for the active army, to storm the Ak-Mechet fortress.

In the winter of 1850, in Uralsk, Pleshcheev met Sigismund Serakovsky and his circle; they met later, in the Ak-Mechet, where both served. In Serakovsky's circle, Pleshcheev again found himself in an atmosphere of intense discussion of the same socio-political issues that worried him in St. Petersburg. “One exile supported another. The highest happiness was being in the circle of his comrades. After the drill, friendly interviews were often held. Letters from home, news brought by newspapers, were the subject of endless discussion. Not one of them lost courage and hope for a return…”, - its member Br. Zalessky. Serakovsky's biographer specified that the circle discussed "issues related to the liberation of the peasants and the allocation of land to them, as well as the abolition of corporal punishment in the army."

On March 2, 1853, Pleshcheev, at his own request, was transferred to the 4th linear battalion, which was setting off on a dangerous steppe campaign. He took part in the Turkestan campaigns organized by Perovsky, in particular, in the siege and assault of the Kokand fortress Ak-Mechet). In a letter to an Orenburg friend, Pleshcheev explained this decision by the fact that "the purpose of the campaign was noble - the protection of the downtrodden, and nothing inspires like a noble goal." For courage, he was promoted to non-commissioned officer, and in May 1856 he received the rank of ensign and with him the opportunity to go to civil service. Pleshcheev resigned in December "with the renaming of collegiate registrars and with permission to enter the civil service, except for the capitals" and entered the service of the Orenburg Border Commission. Here he served until September 1858, after which he moved to the office of the Orenburg civil governor. From the Orenburg Territory, the poet sent his poems and stories to magazines (mainly to the Russian Messenger).

In 1857, Pleshcheev married (to the daughter of the caretaker of the Iletsk salt mine E. A. Rudneva), and in May 1858 he and his wife went to St. Petersburg, receiving a four-month vacation “to both capitals” and the return of the rights of hereditary nobility.

Resumption of literary activity

Already during the years of exile, A. Pleshcheev again resumed his literary activity, although he was forced to write in fits and starts. Pleshcheev's poems began to be published in 1856 in the Russkiy Vestnik under the characteristic title: "Old Songs in a New Way". Pleshcheev of the 1840s was, according to M. L. Mikhailov, inclined towards romanticism; romantic tendencies were preserved in the poems of the period of exile, but criticism noted that here the inner world of a person who “dedicated himself to the struggle for the happiness of the people” began to be more deeply explored.

In 1857, several more of his poems were published in Russkiy Vestnik. For researchers of the poet's work, it remained unclear which of them were really new, and which belonged to the years of exile. It was assumed that G. Heine's translation of "The Way of Life" (according to Pleshcheev - "And laughter, and songs, and the sun shine! .."), published in 1858, is one of the latter. The same line of “fidelity to ideals” was continued by the poem “In the Steppe” (“But let my days pass without joy ...”). The expression of the general sentiments of the Orenburg exiled revolutionaries was the poem "After reading the newspapers", the main idea of which - the condemnation of the Crimean War - was in tune with the moods of the Polish and Ukrainian exiles.

In 1858, after an almost ten-year break, Pleshcheev's second collection of poems was published. The epigraph to it, the words of Heine: "I was not able to sing ...", indirectly indicated that in exile the poet was almost not engaged in creative activity. Poems dated 1849-1851 did not survive at all, and Pleshcheev himself admitted in 1853 that he had long "lost the habit of writing." The main theme of the 1858 collection was "pain for the enslaved homeland and faith in the rightness of one's cause", the spiritual insight of a person who refuses a thoughtless and contemplative attitude to life. The collection opened with the poem "Dedication", which in many respects echoed the poem "And laughter, and songs, and the sun shine! ..". Among those who sympathetically appreciated Pleshcheev's second collection was N. A. Dobrolyubov. He pointed to the socio-historical conditionality of dreary intonations by the circumstances of life, which "ugly break the most noble and strong personalities ...". “In this regard, Mr. Pleshcheev’s talent was also stamped with the same bitter consciousness of his powerlessness before fate, the same color of“ painful longing and desolate thoughts ”that followed the ardent, proud dreams of youth,” wrote the critic.

In August 1859, after a short return to Orenburg, A. N. Pleshcheev settled in Moscow (under "the strictest supervision") and devoted himself entirely to literature, becoming an active contributor to the Sovremennik magazine. Taking advantage of the Orenburg acquaintance with the poet M. L. Mikhailov, Pleshcheev established contacts with the updated editors of the journal: with N. A. Nekrasov, N. G. Chernyshevsky, N. A. Dobrolyubov. Among the publications where the poet published poems were also "Russian Word" (1859-1864), "Time" (1861-1862), the newspapers "Vek" (1861), "Day" (1861-1862) and "Moscow Bulletin "(The editorial position in which he held in 1859-1860), St. Petersburg publications ("Svetoch", "Iskra", "Time", "Russian Word").

In the late 1850s, Pleshcheev returned to prose, publishing two novels that are believed to be largely autobiographical: Budnev (1858) and Two Careers (1859). In them, the motif of the suffering of a “dreamer by nature”, enthusiastic and noble, but succumbing to cruel reality, again appeared. The main target of Pleshcheev's satire as a prose writer was pseudo-liberal accusation and romantic epigonism, as well as the principles of "pure art" in literature (the story "Literary Evening").

On December 19, 1859, the Society of Lovers of Russian Literature elected A. Pleshcheev as a full member.

"Moscow Bulletin"

In November 1859, Pleshcheev became a shareholder of the Moskovsky Vestnik newspaper, in which I. S. Turgenev, A. N. Ostrovsky, M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, I. I. Lazhechnikov, L. N. Tolstoy and N. G. Chernyshevsky. Pleshcheev energetically invited Nekrasov and Dobrolyubov to participate and fought to shift the newspaper's political orientation sharply to the left. He defined the task of publishing as follows: “Any nepotism aside. We must beat the serf-owners under the guise of liberals.”

The publication in the Moskovsky Vestnik of T. G. Shevchenko’s “Sleep” translated by Pleshcheev (published under the heading “The Reaper”), as well as the poet’s autobiography, was regarded by many (in particular, by Chernyshevsky and Dobrolyubov) as a bold political act. Moskovsky Vestnik, under the leadership of Pleshcheev, became a political newspaper that supported the positions of Sovremennik. In turn, Sovremennik, in Notes of a New Poet (I. I. Panaev), positively assessed the direction of Pleshcheev’s newspaper, directly recommending that its reader pay attention to translations from Shevchenko.

1860s

Cooperation with Sovremennik continued until its closure in 1866. The poet has repeatedly declared his unconditional sympathy for the program of the Nekrasov magazine, the articles of Chernyshevsky and Dobrolyubov. “I have never worked so hard and with such love as at that time when all my literary activity was given exclusively to the magazine headed by Nikolai Gavrilovich and whose ideals were and forever remained my ideals,” the poet later recalled.

In Moscow, Nekrasov, Turgenev, Tolstoy, A.F. Pisemsky, A.G. Rubinshtein, P.I. Tchaikovsky, actors of the Maly Theater attended literary and musical evenings in Pleshcheev’s house. Pleshcheev was a member and was elected elder of the Artistic Circle.

In 1861, Pleshcheev decided to create a new journal, Foreign Review, and invited M. L. Mikhailov to participate in it. A year later, with Saltykov, A. M. Unkovsky, A. F. Golovachev, A. I. Evropeyus and B. I. Utin, he developed a project for the journal Russkaya Pravda, but in May 1862 he was denied permission to the journal. At the same time, an unfulfilled plan arose for the purchase of the already outgoing newspaper Vek.

Pleshcheev's position on the reforms of 1861 changed over time. At first, he received the news of them with hope (evidence of this is the poem “You poor people worked, not knowing rest ...”). Already in 1860, the poet rethought his attitude towards the liberation of the peasants - largely under the influence of Chernyshevsky and Dobrolyubov. In letters to E. I. Baranovsky, Pleshcheev noted: the "bureaucratic and plantation" parties are ready to give "the poor peasant as a victim of bureaucratic robbery", renouncing the old hopes that the peasant "will be freed from the heavy paw of the landowner."

Pleshcheev's poetic work of the early 1860s was marked by the predominance of socio-political, civic themes and motives. The poet tried to appeal to a wide democratically minded audience; propaganda notes appeared in his poetic works. He finally ceased cooperation with the Russkiy vestnik and personal communication with M. N. Katkov, moreover, he began to openly criticize the direction headed by the latter. “The damned questions of reality are the true content of poetry,” the poet argued in one of his critical articles, calling for the politicization of the publications in which he participated.

Characteristic in this sense were the poems “Prayer” (a kind of reaction to the arrest of M. L. Mikhailov), the poem “New Year” dedicated to Nekrasov, in which (as in “Anger boiled at the heart ...”) liberals were criticized with their rhetoric. One of the central topics in Pleshcheev's poetry of the early 1860s was the theme of a citizen-fighter, a revolutionary feat. The poet in Pleshcheev's poems is not the former "prophet" suffering from a lack of understanding of the crowd, but a "warrior of the revolution." The poem “Honest people on the thorny road ...”, dedicated to the Chernyshevsky trial (“Let him not weave victorious wreaths for you ...”), had a direct political significance.

The poems “To Youth” and “False Teachers” published in Sovremennik in 1862, connected with the events of the autumn of 1861, when the arrests of students were met with complete indifference of the broad masses, also had the character of a political speech. From Pleshcheev’s letter to A.N. Supenev, to whom the poem “To Youth” was sent for transfer to Nekrasov, it appears that on February 25, 1862, Pleshcheev read “To Youth” at a literary evening in favor of twenty expelled students. The poet also took part in raising money in favor of the affected students. In the poem "To Youth", Pleshcheev urged students "not to retreat before the crowd, to throw stones ready." The poem “To False Teachers” was a response to a lecture by B. N. Chicherin, delivered on October 28, 1861, and directed against the “anarchy of minds” and “violent revelry of thought” of students. In November 1861, Pleshcheev wrote to A.P. Milyukov:

In the reports of the secret police during these years, A. N. Pleshcheev still appeared as a "conspirator"; it was written that although Pleshcheev "behaves very secretively," he is still "suspected of spreading ideas that disagree with the types of government." There were some grounds for such suspicion.

Honest people, dear thorny
Walking towards the light with a firm foot,
Iron will, clear conscience
You are terrible for human malice!
Let him not weave victorious wreaths for you
Crushed by grief, sleeping people, -
Your labors will not perish without a trace;
Good seed will bear fruit...
A poem written in 1863 about the trial of Chernyshevsky was not published until 1905. Chernyshevsky, with whom Pleshcheev was connected by a commonality of views and personal friendship, noted the latter as "a writer whose work is impeccable and useful."

By the time A. N. Pleshcheev moved to Moscow, the closest associates of N. G. Chernyshevsky were already preparing the creation of an all-Russian secret revolutionary organization. Many of the poet's friends took an active part in its preparation: S. I. Serakovsky, M. L. Mikhailov, Ya. Stanevich, N. A. Serno-Solovyevich, N. V. Shelgunov. For this reason, the police also considered Pleshcheev as a full member of the secret organization. In the denunciation of Vsevolod Kostomarov, the poet was called a "conspirator"; it was he who was credited with the creation of the Letter to the Peasants, the famous proclamation of Chernyshevsky.

There is no exact data on Pleshcheev's participation in Land and Freedom. Many contemporaries believed that Pleshcheev not only belonged to a secret society, but also maintained an underground printing house, which, in particular, P. D. Boborykin wrote about. M. N. Sleptsova, in her memoirs “Navigators of the Coming Storm”, claimed that Pleshcheev was among the people who were members of “Land and Freedom” and personally knew her: “In the 60s he was in charge of a printing house in Moscow, where "Young Russia", and, moreover, participated in the "Russian Vedomosti", which had just begun at that time in Moscow, it seems, as a reviewer of foreign literature. He was a member of the Land and Freedom, which has long associated him with Sleptsov, ”she claimed. Indirectly, these statements are confirmed by the letters of Pleshcheev himself. So, on September 16, 1860, he wrote to F.V. Chizhov about his intention to “set up a printing house”. In a letter to Dostoevsky dated October 27, 1859, it was said: "I am starting a printing house myself - although not alone."

In the late 1850s, A. Pleshcheev turned to prose, first to the genre of the story, then published several stories, among which the most significant are "Inheritance" and "Father and Daughter" (both - 1857), partly autobiographical "Pashintseva" and "Two Careers" (both - 1859), "Vocation" (1860). Dobrolyubov wrote about the story “Pashintsev” (published in the “Russian Bulletin” 1859, Nos. 11 and 12): “The public element constantly penetrates them and this distinguishes them from the many colorless stories of the thirties and fifties ... In the history of each hero of Pleshcheev’s stories, you see how he is bound by his environment, as this little world weighs on him with its demands and relations - in a word, you see in the hero a social being, and not a solitary one.

In 1860, two volumes of Pleshcheev's Tales and Stories were published; in 1861 and 1863 - two more collections of Pleshcheev's poems. The researchers noted that as a poet, Pleshcheev joined the Nekrasov school; Against the backdrop of the public upsurge of the 1860s, he created socially critical, protest-invocatory poems (“Oh youth, youth, where are you?”, “Oh, don’t forget that you are a debtor”, “A boring picture!”). At the same time, in the 1860s, he was close to N. P. Ogaryov in the nature of poetic creativity; the work of both poets developed on the basis of common literary traditions, although it was noted that Pleshcheev's poetry is more lyrical. Among contemporaries, however, the opinion prevailed that Pleshcheev remained a “man of the forties”, somewhat romantic and abstract. “Such a spiritual warehouse did not quite coincide with the character of the new people, the sober sixties, who demanded deeds and, above all, deeds,” noted N. Bannikov, the poet's biographer.

N. D. Khvoshchinskaya (under the pseudonym "V. Krestovsky" in a review of Pleshcheev's collection of 1861, highly appreciating in retrospect the work of the poet, who wrote "living, warm modern things that made us sympathize with him", sharply criticized the "uncertainty" of feelings and ideas, in some verses capturing decadence, in some - sympathy for liberalism. Pleshcheev himself indirectly agreed with this assessment, in the poem "Meditation" he admitted about "miserable disbelief" and "belief in the futility of the struggle ...".

The researchers noted that in the new literary situation for Pleshcheev, it was difficult for him to develop his own position. “We need to say a new word, but where is it?” - he wrote to Dostoevsky in 1862. Pleshcheev sympathetically perceived various, sometimes polar social and literary views: thus, sharing some of the ideas of N. G. Chernyshevsky, at the same time he supported both the Moscow Slavophiles and the program of the Vremya magazine.

Literary earnings brought the poet a meager income, he led the existence of a "literary proletarian", as F. M. Dostoevsky called such people (including himself). But, as contemporaries noted, Pleshcheev behaved independently, remaining faithful to "the high humanistic Schillerian idealism learned in his youth." As Yu. Zobnin wrote, “Pleshcheev, with the courageous simplicity of an exiled prince, endured the constant need of these years, huddled with his large family in tiny apartments, but did not compromise either his civic or literary conscience one iota.”

Years of disappointment

In 1864, A. Pleshcheev was forced to enter the service and received the position of auditor of the control chamber of the Moscow post office. “Life has completely torn me apart. In my years, fighting like a fish on ice and wearing a uniform for which I never prepared, how hard, ”he complained two years later in a letter to Nekrasov.

There were other reasons that led to the sharp deterioration in the general mood of the poet, which was outlined by the end of the 1860s, the predominance of feelings of bitterness and depression in his works. His hopes for popular action in response to the reform suffered a collapse; many of his friends died or were arrested (Dobrolyubov, Shevchenko, Chernyshevsky, Mikhailov, Serno-Solovyevich, Shelgunov). A heavy blow for the poet was the death of his wife on December 3, 1864. After the closure of the magazines Sovremennik and Russkoye Slovo in 1866 (the magazines of the Dostoevsky brothers Vremya and Epoch had been discontinued even earlier), Pleshcheev was among a group of writers who practically lost the magazine platform. The main theme of his poems of this time was the exposure of betrayal and betrayal (“If you want it to be peaceful ...”, “Apostaten-Marsch”, “I pity those whose strength is dying ...”).

In the 1870s, the revolutionary mood in the work of Pleshcheev acquired the character of reminiscences; Characteristic in this sense is the poem “I quietly walked along a deserted street ...” (1877), which is considered one of the most significant in his work, dedicated to the memory of V. G. Belinsky. As if drawing a line under a long period of disappointment and collapse of hopes, the poem “Without hopes and expectations ...” (1881), which was a direct response to the state of affairs in the country.

In 1868, N. A. Nekrasov, becoming the head of the Otechestvennye Zapiski magazine, invited Pleshcheev to move to St. Petersburg and take the post of editorial secretary. Here the poet immediately found himself in a friendly atmosphere, among like-minded people. After Nekrasov's death, Pleshcheev took over the leadership of the poetry department and worked in the magazine until 1884.

At the same time, together with V. S. Kurochkin, A. M. Skabichevsky, N. A. Demert, he became an employee of Birzhevye Vedomosti, a newspaper in which Nekrasov dreamed of secretly “holding the views” of his main publication. After the closure of Otechestvennye Zapiski, Pleshcheev contributed to the creation of a new journal, Severny Vestnik, in which he worked until 1890.

Pleshcheev actively supported young writers. He played a crucial role in the life of Ivan Surikov, who was a beggar and was ready to commit suicide; his life changed after the first publication arranged by Pleshcheev. Having great influence in editorial offices and publishing houses, Pleshcheev helped V. M. Garshin, A. Serafimovich, S. Ya. Nadson, A. Apukhtin. The most important role Pleshcheev played in the literary fate of D. S. Merezhkovsky during his literary debut. The latter, as a relic, he kept in his archive a brief note: “I propose to membership<Литературного>Society of Semen Yakovlevich Nadson (Krondstadt, corner of Kozelskaya and Kronstadtskaya, the house of the Nikitin heirs, Grigoriev's apartment) Dmitry Sergeevich Merezhkovsky (Znamenskaya, 33, apartment 9) A. Pleshcheev ". A deep friendship connected Pleshcheev with the novice A.P. Chekhov, whom Pleshcheev considered the most promising of young writers. The poet greeted Chekhov's first major story, The Steppe, with admiration.

In his bibliographic notes, Pleshcheev defended realistic principles in art, developing the ideas of V. G. Belinsky and the principles of “real criticism”, primarily N. A. Dobrolyubov. Each time, based on the social significance of literature, Pleshcheev tried to reveal in his critical reviews the social meaning of the work, although he "usually relied on vague, too general concepts, such as sympathy for the disadvantaged, knowledge of the heart and life, naturalness and vulgarity." In particular, this approach led him to underestimate the works of A. K. Tolstoy. As the head of the literary department of Severny Vestnik, Pleshcheev openly clashed with the populist editorial group, primarily with N.K. Mikhailovsky, from whose criticism he defended Chekhov (especially his Steppe) and Garshin. In the end, Pleshcheev quarreled with A. M. Evreinova ("... She does not intend to cooperate with her after her rude and impudent attitude towards me," he wrote to Chekhov in March 1890) and ceased cooperation with the magazine.

Creativity of the 1880s

With the resettlement to the capital, Pleshcheev's creative activity resumed and did not stop almost until his death. In the 1870-1880s, the poet was mainly engaged in poetic translations from German, French, English and Slavic languages. As the researchers noted, it was here that his poetic skill was most manifested.

... You are dear to us, which is not just a word,
But with all your soul, with all your life you are a poet,
And in these sixty hard, long years -
In deaf exile, in battle, in harsh labor -
You were warmed everywhere by a pure flame.
But do you know, poet, to whom you are dearest of all,
Who will send you the warmest hello?
You are the best friend for us, for Russian youth,
For those whom you called: "Forward, forward!"
With his captivating, deep kindness,
As a patriarch, you united us into a family, -
And that's why we love you with all our hearts,
And that's what we now raise a glass to!

These poems by D. S. Merezhkovsky, read by him “on behalf of the youth” at the anniversary celebrations on November 22, 1885, dedicated to the 60th anniversary of the poet, fully reflected the attitude of the new generation of Russian intelligentsia towards the patriarch.

A. Pleshcheev translated major dramatic works (“Ratcliff” by Heine, “Magdalene” by Goebbel, “Struensee” by M. Behr), poems by German poets (Heine, M. Hartmann, R. Prutz), French (V. Hugo, M. Monier ), English (J. G. Byron, A. Tennyson, R. Southey, T. Moore), Hungarian (S. Petofi), Italian (Giacomo Leopardi), works of the Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko and such Polish poets as S. Vitvitsky (“The grass is turning green, the sun is shining ...”, from the collection “Rural Songs”), Anthony Sova (Eduard Zheligovsky) and Vladislav Syrokomlya.

A. Pleshcheev also translated fiction; some works (“The Belly of Paris” by E. Zola, “Red and Black” by Stendhal) were first published in his translation. The poet also translated scientific articles and monographs. In various journals, Pleshcheev published numerous compilation works on Western European history and sociology (Paul-Louis Courier, his life and works, 1860; Proudhon's Life and Correspondence, 1873; Dickens' Life, 1891), monographs on the work of W. Shakespeare, Stendhal, A. de Musset. In his journalistic and literary-critical articles, largely following Belinsky, he promoted democratic aesthetics, called for people to look for heroes capable of self-sacrifice in the name of common happiness.

In 1887, the complete collection of poems by A. N. Pleshcheev was published. The second edition, with some additions, was made after his death by his son, in 1894, Pleshcheev's Tales and Stories were subsequently published.

A. N. Pleshcheev was actively interested in theatrical life, was close to the theatrical environment, and was familiar with A. N. Ostrovsky. At various times, he held the positions of foreman of the Artistic Circle and chairman of the Society of Stage Workers, actively participated in the activities of the Society of Russian Drama Writers and Opera Composers, and often gave readings himself.

A. N. Pleshcheev wrote 13 original plays. Basically, these were small in volume and "entertaining" in terms of plot, lyric-satirical comedies from provincial landowner life. Theatrical productions based on his dramaturgic works "Service" and "There is no silver lining" (both - 1860), "The Happy Couple", "Commander" (both - 1862) "What Often Happens" and "Brothers" (both - 1864), etc.) were shown in the leading theaters of the country. In the same years, he reworked for the Russian stage about thirty comedies by foreign playwrights.

An important place in the work of Pleshcheev in the last decade of his life was occupied by children's poetry and literature. His collections Snowdrop (1878) and Grandfather's Songs (1891) were successful. Some poems have become textbooks ("The Old Man", "Grandmother and Granddaughters"). The poet took an active part in publishing, in line with the development of children's literature. In 1861, together with F. N. Berg, he published a collection-reader "Children's Book", in 1873 (with N. A. Aleksandrov) - a collection of works for children's reading "On a holiday." Also, thanks to the efforts of Pleshcheev, seven school manuals were published under the general heading "Geographical essays and paintings."

Researchers of Pleshcheev's work noted that Pleshcheev's children's poems are characterized by a desire for vitality and simplicity; they are filled with free colloquial intonations and real imagery, while maintaining the general mood of social discontent (“I grew up with my mother in the hall ...”, “A boring picture”, “Beggars”, “Children”, “Native”, “Old people”, “Spring ”,“ Childhood ”,“ Old man ”,“ Grandmother and granddaughters ”).

A. N. Pleshcheev was characterized by experts as "a poet with a smoothly flowing, romance" poetic speech and one of the most "melodious lyric poets of the second half of the 19th century." About a hundred romances and songs were written to his poems - both by contemporaries and composers of the next generations, including N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov (“The Night Flew Over the World”), M. P. Mussorgsky, Ts. A. Cui , A. T. Grechaninov, S. V. Rakhmaninov.

Pleshcheev's poems and children's songs became a source of inspiration for P. I. Tchaikovsky, who appreciated their "heartfelt lyricism and spontaneity, excitement and clarity of thought." Tchaikovsky's interest in Pleshcheev's poetry was largely due to the fact of their personal acquaintance. They met at the end of the 1860s in Moscow in the Artistic Circle and maintained good friendly relations for the rest of their lives.

Tchaikovsky, who turned to Pleshcheev’s poetry at different periods of his creative life, wrote several romances to the poet’s poems: in 1869 - “Not a word, my friend ...”, in 1872 - “Oh, sing the same song ...”, in 1884 - "Only you alone ...", in 1886 - "Oh, if you only knew ..." and "The meek stars shone for us ...". Fourteen songs of Tchaikovsky from the cycle "Sixteen Songs for Children" (1883) were created on poems from Pleshcheev's collection "Snowdrop"

“This work is light and very pleasant, because I took the text of Pleshcheev's Snowdrop, where there are a lot of lovely gizmos,” the composer wrote to M. I. Tchaikovsky while working on this cycle. In the House-Museum of P. I. Tchaikovsky in Klin, in the composer’s library, a collection of Pleshcheev’s poems “Snowdrop” has been preserved with the poet’s dedication inscription: “To Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky as a token of location and gratitude for his beautiful music to my bad words. A. N. Pleshcheev. February 18, 1881 St. Petersburg.

Pleshcheev became an admirer of Chekhov even before he met him personally. The memoirist Baron N. V. Drizen wrote: “As I now see the handsome, almost biblical figure of an old man - the poet A. N. Pleshcheev, talking with me about the book At Twilight, just published by Suvorin. “When I was reading this book,” said Pleshcheev, “the shadow of I. S. Turgenev hovered invisibly in front of me. The same pacifying poetry of the word, the same wonderful description of nature…” He especially liked the story “Holy Night”.

Pleshcheev's first acquaintance with Chekhov took place in December 1887 in St. Petersburg, when the latter, together with I. L. Leontiev (Shcheglov), visited the poet's house. Shcheglov later recalled this first meeting: “... half an hour had not passed, when the dearest Alexei Nikolaevich was in Chekhov’s complete“ mental captivity ”and was worried in his turn, while Chekhov quickly entered his usual philosophical and humorous mood. If someone accidentally looked into Pleshcheev’s office then, he probably would have thought that old close friends were talking ... ” A month later, an intense friendly correspondence began between the new friends, which lasted five years. In letters to other acquaintances, Chekhov often called Pleshcheev "grandfather" and "padre". At the same time, he himself was not an admirer of Pleshcheev's poetry and did not hide the irony in relation to those who idolized the poet.

The story "Steppe" Chekhov wrote in January 1888 for the "Northern Messenger"; at the same time, he shared his thoughts and doubts in detail in his letters (“I am shy and afraid that my Steppe will come out insignificant ... Frankly, I squeeze myself out, strain and puff up, but still, in general, it does not satisfy me, although in some places they come across her poetry in prose"). Pleshcheev became the first reader of the story (in manuscript) and repeatedly expressed delight in letters (“You wrote or almost wrote a great thing. Praise and honor to you! .. It hurts me that you wrote so many lovely, truly artistic things - and are less famous, than writers unworthy to untie the belt at your feet").

Chekhov, first of all, sent stories, novellas and the play Ivanov (in the second edition) to Pleshcheev; shared in correspondence the idea of the novel, which he worked on in the late 1880s, gave him the first chapters to read. On March 7, 1889, Chekhov wrote to Pleshcheev: “I will dedicate my novel to you ... in my dreams and plans, my best thing is dedicated to you.” Pleshcheev, highly appreciating internal independence in Chekhov, was himself frank with him: he did not hide his sharply negative attitude towards the "New Time" and even towards Suvorin himself, with whom Chekhov was close.

In 1888, Pleshcheev visited Chekhov in Sumy, and the latter spoke of this visit in a letter to Suvorin:

Pleshcheev criticized Chekhov's "Name Day", in particular, its middle part, with which Chekhov agreed ("... I wrote it lazily and carelessly. Having got used to short stories consisting only of a beginning and an end, I get bored and start chewing when I feel that I write the middle"), then spoke sharply about the story "Leshy" (which Merezhkovsky and Urusov had previously praised). On the contrary, the story "A Boring Story" was awarded the highest rating.

Correspondence began to come to naught after Chekhov, having gone to Tyumen, did not answer several letters from the poet, however, even after receiving an inheritance with subsequent relocation to Paris, Pleshcheev continued to describe in detail his life, illnesses and treatment. A total of 60 Chekhov's letters and 53 Pleshcheev's letters have been preserved. The first publication of the correspondence was prepared by the son of the poet, writer and journalist Alexander Alekseevich Pleshcheev and was published in 1904 by the Petersburg Diary of a Theatergoer.

last years of life

For the last three years of his life, Pleshcheev was freed from worries about earnings. In 1890, he received a huge inheritance from a Penza relative Alexei Pavlovich Pleshcheev and settled with his daughters in luxurious apartments in the Mirabeau Hotel in Paris, where he called all his acquaintances writers and generously gave them large sums of money. According to the memoirs of Z. Gippius, the poet changed only outwardly (having lost weight from the onset of the disease). Huge wealth, suddenly fallen on him "from the sky", he accepted "with noble indifference, remaining the same simple and hospitable owner, as in a small cell on Preobrazhenskaya Square." “What is wealth to me. That's just the joy that I was able to provide for the children, well, I myself sighed a little ... before my death, ”the poetess conveyed his words. Pleshcheev himself took guests to the sights of Paris, ordered sumptuous dinners in restaurants and "respectfully asked" to accept from him an "advance" for travel - a thousand rubles.

The poet contributed a significant amount to the Literary Fund, established the Belinsky and Chernyshevsky foundations to encourage talented writers, began to support the families of G. Uspensky and S. Nadson, undertook to finance the magazine N. K. Mikhailovsky and V. G. Korolenko "Russian Wealth".

On January 2, 1892, from Nice, Pleshcheev wrote to Chekhov that his son Nikolai bought himself an estate in the Smolensk province, that in July in Lucerne his left arm and leg were taken away from him, he described in detail consultations with famous doctors (including "... the famous Kusmaul, whom Botkin wrote to himself before his death "- the latter forbade him to return to Russia in the winter), and also mentioned the treatment with" electricity and massage ":

K. D. Balmont. In memory of Pleshcheev.

His soul was pure as snow;
Man was sacred to him;
He was always a singer of goodness and light;
He was full of love for the downtrodden.
Oh youth! Bow down, bless
The cooled ashes of a silent poet.

Pleshcheev wrote that he avoided the beau monde, mentioning among those with whom communication gives him pleasure, only Professor M. Kovalevsky, zoologist Korotnev, Vice-Consul Yurasov, and the Merezhkovsky couple.

In 1893, already seriously ill, A.N. Pleshcheev once again went to Nice for treatment, and on the way, on September 26 (October 8), 1893, he died of an apoplexy. His body was transported to Moscow and buried in the cemetery of the Novodevichy Convent.

The authorities forbade the publication of any "panegyric word" on the death of the poet, but a huge number of people gathered at the farewell ceremony on October 6. At the funeral, as contemporaries testified, there were mainly young people, including many then unknown writers, in particular, K. Balmont, who delivered a farewell speech over the coffin.

Reviews of critics and contemporaries

Researchers of the poet's work noted the huge resonance that one of his first poems, "Forward", laid the foundation for "the public, civic side of his poetry ...". It was noted, first of all, the strength of Pleshcheev's civic position, the full compliance of the personal qualities of the ideals proclaimed by them. Peter Weinberg, in particular, wrote:

Many critics at the same time reservedly evaluated the early works of A. Pleshcheev. It was noted that it was "colored with the ideas of socialist utopianism"; the traditional romantic motifs of disappointment, loneliness, longing "were interpreted by him as a reaction to social disadvantage", in the context of the theme of "holy suffering" of the lyrical hero ("Dream", "Wanderer", "Call of friends"). The humanistic pathos of Pleshcheev's lyrics was combined with a prophetic tone characteristic of the mood of utopians, nourished by the hope of "seeing the eternal ideal" ("To the Poet", 1846). Faith in the possibility of a harmonious world order, the expectation of imminent change, was also expressed in P.'s most famous poem, extremely popular among the Petrashevites (as well as among the revolutionary-minded youth of the next generations, "Forward! Without fear and doubt ..." (1846).

Friends! Let's give each other hands
And let's move forward together
And let, under the banner of science,
Our Union is growing stronger and growing ...
... Let us be a guiding star
Holy truth burns.
And believe me, noble voice
No wonder the world will sound.

Writers and critics associated with the social democratic movement were often skeptical about the pessimistic mood that prevailed in the poet's poetry after his return from exile. However, the same Dobrolyubov, noting that in Pleshcheev’s poems one can hear “some kind of inner heavy grief, the sad complaint of a defeated fighter, sadness about the unfulfilled hopes of youth,” he nevertheless noted that these moods have nothing to do with “the plaintive groans of whiny piit of the former time." Noting that such a transition from the initial loftiness of hopes to disappointment is generally characteristic of the best representatives of Russian poetry (Pushkin, Koltsov, etc.), the critic wrote that “... the poet’s sadness about the failure to fulfill his hopes is not without ... social significance and gives Mr. Pleshcheev’s poems the right to be mentioned in the future history of Russian literature, even completely regardless of the degree of talent with which they express this sadness and these hopes.

Critics and writers of later generations assessed the poet's minor intonations somewhat differently, finding them consonant with the time in which he lived. “He held the torch of thought on a rainy day. Sobs sounded in his soul. In his stanzas there was the sound of native sadness, the dull moan of distant villages, a call for freedom, a gentle sigh of greetings and the first ray of the coming dawn, ”wrote K. Balmont in a posthumous dedication.

A. N. Pleshcheev was not an innovator of form: his poetic system, formed in line with the Pushkin and Lermontov traditions, relied on stable phrases, established rhythmic-syntactic schemes, and a well-developed system of images. To some critics, this seemed to be evidence of genuine taste and talent, to others it gave reason to call some of his poems "colorless", to accuse him of "lack of independence" and "monotonity". At the same time, contemporaries, for the most part, highly appreciated the "social significance" of Pleshcheev's poetry, its "noble and pure direction", deep sincerity, and the call for "honest service to society."

Pleshcheev was often reproached for his fascination with abstract concepts and high-flown metaphors (“To all enemies of black untruth, rebelling against evil”, “The sword of the peoples is stained”, “But high aspirations were sacrificed to human vulgarity ...”). At the same time, the poet's supporters noted that this kind of didacticism was a form of Aesopian speech, an attempt to circumvent censorship. M. Mikhailov, who at one time criticized Pleshcheev, already in 1861 wrote that "... Pleshcheev left one force - the force of the call to honest service to society and neighbors."

Over the years, critics have paid more and more attention to the individual, "special purity and transparency of Pleshcheev's poetic language", sincerity and sincerity; the softness of the tones of his poetic palette, the emotional depth of outwardly extremely simple, artless lines.

Of the literary historians of the 20th century, a negative assessment of Pleshcheev's work belongs to D. P. Svyatopolk-Mirsky; he wrote in the preface to a poetic anthology that Pleshcheev “leads us into the true Sahara of poetic mediocrity and lack of culture”, and in his “History of Russian Literature” he notes: “Civil poetry in the hands of its most significant representatives has become truly realistic, but ordinary civic bards often were just as eclectic as the poets of "pure art", and in obedience to conventions they were still superior. Such, for example, is the flat and boring poetry of the very sweet and respectable A. N. Pleshcheev.

Influences

Most often, critics attributed Pleshcheev's poetry to the Nekrasov school. Indeed, already in the 1850s, the poet began to appear poems, as if reproducing the satirical and social lines of Nekrasov's poetry (“The children of the century are all sick ...”, 1858, etc.). The first comprehensive satirical image of a liberal appeared in Pleshcheev's poem "My Friend" (1858); critics immediately noted that many attributes of figurativeness were borrowed from Nekrasov (his father, who went bankrupt "on dancers", the hero's provincial career, etc.). The same accusatory line continued in the poem “The Lucky One” (“Slander! A member of various charitable societies and I. Philanthropists take five rubles every year from me.”) » (1862).

The poet wrote a lot about people's life ("A boring picture", "Native", "Beggars"), about the life of the city's lower classes - "On the Street". Impressed by the plight of N. G. Chernyshevsky, who had been in Siberian exile for five years, the poem “I pity those whose strength is dying” (1868) was written. Nekrasov's influence was noticeable in everyday sketches and in Pleshcheev's folklore and verse imitations ("I grew up in the hall with my mother ...", 1860s), in poems for children. To Nekrasov, Pleshcheev forever retained feelings of personal affection and gratitude. “I love Nekrasov. There are aspects in him that involuntarily attract him, and for them you forgive him a lot. In these three or four years that I've been here<в Петербурге>, I happened to spend two or three evenings with him - those that leave a mark on the soul for a long time. Finally, I will say that I personally owe him a lot…”, he wrote to Zhemchuzhnikov in 1875. Some contemporaries, in particular, M. L. Mikhailov, drew attention to the fact that Pleshcheev failed to create convincing pictures of people's life; craving for the Nekrasov school was for him, rather, an unrealized trend.

V. N. Maykov was one of the first who ranked Pleshcheev among the followers of Lermontov. Subsequently, modern researchers also wrote about this: V. Zhdanov noted that Pleshcheev, in a sense, “took over” from Lermontov, one of whose last poems told about the fate of Pushkin’s prophet, who set off to bypass “seas and lands” (“I began to proclaim love / And the truth is pure teachings: / All my neighbors / Threw stones at me furiously ...”). One of Pleshcheev's first published poems was "Duma", which denounced the public's indifference "to good and evil", consonant with Lermontov's theme ("Alas, he is rejected! The crowd does not find love and truth in his words ... ").

The theme of the poet-prophet, borrowed from Lermontov, became the leitmotif of Pleshcheev's lyrics, expressing "a view on the role of the poet as a leader and teacher, and on art as a means of rebuilding society." The poem "Dream", which repeated the plot of Pushkin's "Prophet" (sleep in the desert, the appearance of a goddess, turning into a prophet), according to V. Zhdanov, "allows us to say that Pleshcheev not only repeated the motives of his brilliant predecessors, but tried to give his own interpretation Topics. He sought to continue Lermontov, as Lermontov continued Pushkin. The Pleshcheevsky prophet, who is waiting for “stones, chains, prison”, inspired by the idea of truth, goes to the people (“My fallen spirit has risen ... and to the oppressed again / I went to proclaim freedom and love ...”). From Pushkin's and Lermontov's sources comes the theme of personal, family happiness, developed in the poetry of the Petrashevites, and in Pleshcheev's work it received a new interpretation: as the theme of the tragedy of marriage that breaks love ("Baya"), as a preaching of "reasonable" love, based on the similarity of views and beliefs (“We are close to each other ... I know, but alien in spirit ...”).

Critics noted that, in terms of the nature and nature of his poetic activity, Pleshcheev in the 1860s was closest to N.P. Ogaryov. He himself insisted on this creative "kinship". On January 20, 1883 the poet wrote to S. Ya. Pleshcheev's landscape and landscape-philosophical lyrics were considered by critics as "interesting", but rational and largely secondary, in particular, in relation to the work of A. A. Fet.

Researchers of the 20th century have already noted that the idea of Pleshcheev as a “poet of the 40s”, who outlived his time, or a Nekrasov epigone, planted by the liberal press, was largely motivated by political intrigues, a desire to belittle the authority of a potentially dangerous opposition author. Biographer N. Bannikov noted that Pleshcheev's poetic work developed; in his later poems there was less romantic pathos, more - on the one hand, contemplation and philosophical reflections, on the other - satirical motives ("My friend", "Lucky"). Such protest works of the poet as “Honest people, dear thorny ...”, “I feel sorry for those whose strength is dying” had quite independent value; poems that ridiculed “superfluous people” degraded in their passive “opposition” (poetic short story “She and He”, poem “Children of the century are all sick ...”, 1858).

"Dedication"
Do sounds of familiar songs come to you,
Friends of my lost youth?
And will I hear your brotherly greetings?
Are you still the same as you were before the separation?
Maybe I can't count the others!
And those - in a strange, distant side -
Forgotten about me...
And there is no one to respond to the songs!
The poem, dated 1858 and addressed to fellow Petrashevites, found a warm response among the latter, as evidenced by N. S. Kashkin. The latter responded with his verse:
Go ahead, don't be discouraged!
Goodness and truth on the road
Call your friends out loud.
Forward without fear and doubt
And if someone's blood has cooled,
Your living songs
He will be awakened to life again.

Critics noted that Pleshcheev's poetry was clearer and more concrete than the civil lyrics of the 60-70s of Ya. P. Polonsky and A. M. Zhemchuzhnikov, although some lines of creativity of the three poets intersected. The lyrics of Polonsky (as M. Polyakov noted) were alien to the pathos of revolutionary duty; unlike Pleshcheev, who blessed the revolutionary, he lived with the dream of "overpowering time - to go into prophetic dreams" ("Muse"). Closer to Pleshcheev's poetic system is the lyrics of "civil motives" by A. M. Zhemchuzhnikov. But their commonality was rather reflected in what constituted (in the opinion of the revolutionary democrats) the weak side of Pleshcheev's poetry. The similarity with Zhemchuzhnikov was due to the ideological "vagueness" and sentimental didacticism of individual poems by Pleshcheev, mainly from 1858-1859. The motives of civil repentance, the allegorical perception of nature brought together both. Zhemchuzhnikov's distinctly liberal position (in particular, the latter's recognition of the ideals of "pure poetry") was alien to Pleshcheev.

S. Ya. Nadson was considered the most obvious and striking follower of Pleshcheev, who protested in the same tones against the “kingdom of Baal”, sang the shedding of the “righteous blood of fallen fighters”, used a similar didactic style, symbols and signs. The main difference was that the feelings of despair and doom in Nadson's poetry took on almost grotesque forms. It was noted that Pleshcheev's poetry had a noticeable influence on the poems of N. Dobrolyubov of 1856-1861 (“When a bright ray of knowledge penetrated the darkness of ignorance to us ...”), on the work of P. F. Yakubovich, the early N. M. Minsky, I. Z. Surikova, V. G. Bogoraz. Pleshcheev’s direct retelling was G. A. Machtet’s poem “Forgive me the last!”, Pleshcheev’s lines were quoted by F. V. Volkhovsky (“To Friends”), S. S. Sinegub (“To the bust of Belinsky”), P. L. Lavrov, in his poem "Forward!" using part of Pleshcheev's program poem.

Pleshcheev's landscape poetry developed in the 1870s; the poems were filled with “sparkling tints of colors”, accurate descriptions of the elusive movements of nature (“Ice chains do not burden the sparkling wave”, “I see the vault of the sky is transparent blue, the jagged peaks of huge mountains”), which was interpreted by experts as the influence of A. A. Fet . Pleshcheev's landscape lyrics, however, one way or another served as a symbolic interpretation of the motives of social life and ideological searches. At the heart of, say, the "Summer Songs" cycle was the idea that the harmony of nature opposes the world of social contradictions and injustice ("A Boring Picture", "Fatherland"). Unlike Fet and Polonsky, Pleshcheev did not experience conflict in the separation of two themes: landscape and civil.

Pleshcheev was criticized not only by liberals, but also - especially in the 1860s - by radical writers, whose ideals the poet tried to live up to. Among the poems that, according to critics, gave out sympathy for liberal ideas, it was noted “You poor people worked, not knowing rest ...” (from which it followed that the peasants, “submissive to fate”, patiently carried “their cross, like a righteous person carries”, but it came “the time of the holy rebirth”, etc.). This liberal "prayer" evoked a sharp response from Dobrolyubov, who, on the whole, was always sympathetic to the poet. He also parodied (in the poem "From the motives of modern Russian poetry") Pleshcheev's "praise" of the "tsar-liberator" that seemed to him liberal. However, the parody was not printed for ethical reasons. Dobrolyubov criticized Pleshcheev for "abstract didacticism" and allegorical images (entry in the critic's diary dated February 8, 1858).

Radical authors and publicists also criticized Pleshcheev for being too “broad-minded,” in their opinion. Often he supported conflicting ideas and currents, sympathizing only with their "opposition"; breadth of views "often turned into uncertainty of judgments."

Pleshcheev the prose writer was classified as a typical representative of the "natural school"; he wrote about provincial life, denouncing bribe-takers, serf-owners and the pernicious power of money (the story "Coon Coat", 1847; "Cigarette", "Protection", 1848; stories "Prank" and "Friendly Advice", 1849). Critics noticed in his prose works the influence of N.V. Gogol and N.A. Nekrasov.

N. A. Dobrolyubov, reviewing in 1860 a two-volume book, which included 8 stories by A. N. Pleshcheev, noted that they “... were published in all our best magazines and were read at one time. Then they forgot about them. Talk and disputes of his story were never aroused either in the public or in literary criticism: no one praised them especially, but no one scolded them either. For the most part they read the story and were satisfied; that was the end of it…” Comparing the novels and stories of Pleshcheev with the works of contemporary writers of the second plan, the critic noted that "... the social element constantly penetrates them and this distinguishes them from the many colorless stories of the thirties and fifties."

The world of Pleshcheev's prose is the world of "petty officials, teachers, artists, small landowners, semi-secular ladies and young ladies." In the history of each hero of Pleshcheev's stories, however, there is a noticeable connection with the environment, which "burdens over him with its demands." This, according to Dobrolyubov, is the main advantage of Pleshcheev's stories, however, - the dignity is not unique, belonging to him "on an equal basis with so many of modern fiction writers." The dominant motif of Pleshcheev's prose, according to the critic, can be reduced to the phrase: "the environment seizes a person." However -

Describing the protagonist of the story of the same name, Dobrolyubov notes: “This Pashintsev is neither this nor that, neither day nor night, neither darkness nor light,” like many other heroes of stories of this kind, “does not represent a phenomenon at all; the whole environment that seizes it consists of exactly the same people. The reason for the death of Gorodkov, the hero of the story "Blessing" (1859), according to the critic, is "... His own naivety." Ignorance of life, uncertainty in means and goals, and poverty of means also distinguish Kostin, the hero of the story “Two Careers” (1859), who dies in consumption (“Irreproachable heroes in Mr. Pleshcheev, like in Mr. Turgenev and others, die from debilitating diseases,” the author of the article ironically), “having done nothing anywhere; but we do not know what he could do in the world, even if he did not suffer from consumption and was not constantly choked by the environment. Dobrolyubov notes, however, the fact that the shortcomings of the poet’s prose also have a subjective side: “If Mr. Pleshcheev draws his Kostins and Gorodkovs for us with exaggerated sympathy, it is<следствие того, что>other, more sustained practically types, in the same direction, have not yet been represented by Russian society.

The meaning of creativity

It is believed that the significance of the work of A. N. Pleshcheev for Russian and Eastern European social thought significantly exceeded the scale of his literary and poetic talent. Beginning in 1846, the poet's works were regarded by critics almost exclusively in terms of socio-political significance. The poetry collection of A. N. Pleshcheev in 1846 became in fact a poetic manifesto of the Petrashev circle. In his article, Valerian Maikov, explaining what Pleshcheev's poetry was for people of the 40s, inspired by socialist ideals, put the latter at the center of modern poetry and was even ready to consider him the immediate successor of M. Yu. Lermontov. “In the miserable position in which our poetry has been since the death of Lermontov, Mr. Pleshcheev is undoubtedly our first poet at the present time ...”, he wrote.

Subsequently, it was the revolutionary pathos of Pleshcheev's early poetry that determined the scale of his authority in the revolutionary circles of Russia. It is known that in 1897 one of the first social democratic organizations, the South Russian Workers' Union, used the most famous poem of the poet in its leaflet.

"The Song of the Workers"
In the leaflet interpretation of the "South Russian Workers' Union", the Pleshcheev anthem looked like this:
Forward without fear and doubt
On a valiant feat, friends
For a long time longing for unity
Working friendly family!
We will shake hands with each other
Let's unite in a close circle, -
And let the torture and torment
A true friend will go for a friend!
We want brotherhood and freedom!
May the vile age of slavery perish!
Is it mother nature
Isn't everyone equal?
The eternal covenant given to us by Marx -
Obey this covenant:
“Come closer, workers of all countries,
Unite in one Union!“

N. A. Morozov testified that the poem was popular among the revolutionary intelligentsia. The song (in a slightly modified version: The time will come, the time will come, the young forces will grow up / The eagles will fly up and peck the chain of violence with an iron beak ...) was loved in the Ulyanov family.

In January 1886, the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the activity of A. N. Pleshcheev took place. This celebration was treated with great sympathy not only by old Petrashevite comrades-in-arms (in particular, N. S. Kashkin, who wrote to the poet on April 12, 1886, that he followed the anniversary "with sincere joy and lively sympathy"). Participants in the revolutionary movement of the new generation reacted to this event even more vividly: some of them, in particular, the one who signed the "editor of Echoes", called the poet their teacher.

Pleshcheev was known and highly valued by revolutionary-democratic circles in Ukraine, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, where he was perceived exclusively as a political poet. The founder of the new Bulgarian literature, Petko Slaveikov, in 1866 translated “Forward! without fear and doubt…”, after which the verse became the anthem of the Bulgarian revolutionaries. Emanuel Vavra mentioned Pleshcheev, Shevchenko, Ogarev and Mikhailov among the "most deserving, talented, truly valuable" Slavic poets. Demanding that the poetry that moves "forward the people" be "humanistic, truthful and reasonable", he listed Burns, Byron, Beranger, Pleshcheev and Taras Shevchenko in the same row. Pleshcheev's work was highly appreciated in 1893 by the Slovenian writer Fran Celestin. In 1871, Pleshcheev's first translations were published in Ukraine. Since 1895, P. A. Grabovsky became his permanent translator here. Ivan Franko wrote about Pleshcheev that he “deservedly takes a place in the galaxy of the most prominent writers in Russian literature of the 40s ...”

Meanwhile, in general, the significance of the work of A. N. Pleshcheev was not limited to his contribution to the development of Russian revolutionary poetry. Critics noted that the poet did a great job (mainly on the pages of Otechestvennye Zapiski and Birzhevye Vedomosti), analyzing the development of European literature, accompanying publications with his own translations (Zola, Stendhal, the Goncourt brothers, Alphonse Daudet). Pleshcheev's poems for children ("On the Shore", "The Old Man") are recognized as classic. Along with Pushkin and Nekrasov, he is considered one of the founders of Russian poetry for children.

Pleshcheev's translations

Pleshcheev's influence on the poetry of the second half of the 19th century was largely due to his translations, which had, in addition to artistic and socio-political significance: partly through poetry (Heine, Beranger, Barbier, etc.), revolutionary and socialist ideas penetrated Russia. More than two hundred translated poems make up almost half of Pleshcheev's entire poetic heritage. Modern criticism saw in him one of the greatest masters of poetic translation. “According to our extreme conviction, Pleshcheev in translations is even more of a poet than in the originals,” wrote the Vremya magazine, also noting that “in foreign authors, he seeks, first of all, his own thought and takes his good wherever it is ... ". Most of Pleshcheev's translations were from German and French. Many of his translations, despite specific liberties, are still considered textbooks (from Goethe, Heine, Rückert, Freiligrath).

Pleshcheev did not hide that he did not see any special differences in the methodology of working on the translation and his own, original poem. He admitted that he uses translation as a means of promoting the most important ideas for this period, and in a letter to Markovich dated December 10, 1870, he directly stated: “I prefer to translate those poets in whom the universal human element takes precedence over the folk, in which culture affects !" The poet knew how to find "democratic motives" even among poets of clearly expressed conservative views (Souty - early poems "The Blenheim Battle" and "Complaints of the Poor"). Translating Tennyson, he especially emphasized the English poet's sympathy for the "fighter for an honest cause" ("Funeral Song"), for the people ("The May Queen").

At the same time, Pleshcheev often interpreted the possibilities of translation as a field of improvisation, in which he often departed from the original source. The poet freely altered, shortened or enlarged the translated work: for example, Robert Prutz's poem “Did you look at the Alps at sunset ...” turned from a sonnet into a triple quatrain; Syrokomli’s large poem “The Plowman to the Lark” (“Oracz do skowronku”, 1851), which consisted of two parts, he retold under the arbitrary name “Bird” in abbreviation (24 lines in the original, 18 in the translation). The poet considered the genre of poetic translation as a means of promoting new ideas. He freely interpreted, in particular, Heine's poetry, often introducing his own (or Nekrasov's) ideas and motives (translation of "Countess Gudel von Gudelsfeld"). It is known that in 1849, having visited Moscow University, the poet told students that “... it is necessary to awaken self-consciousness among the people, and the best way to do this would be to translate foreign works into Russian, adapting to the common language of speech, to distribute them in manuscript ... ”, and that a society has already arisen in St. Petersburg for this purpose.

Character and personal qualities

All those who left memories of Pleshcheev characterized him as a person of high moral qualities. Peter Weinberg wrote about him as a poet who "... amid the harsh and frequent jolts of reality, even exhausted under them, ... nevertheless continued to be the purest idealist and called others to the same ideal service to humanity", never betrayed himself, " nowhere and never (as it was said in a poetic address on the occasion of his fortieth birthday) without sacrificing good feelings before the world.

He was one of those whom fate led
Silicon paths of testing.
Whom danger guarded everywhere,
Mockingly threatening with anguish of exile.
But the blizzard of life, poverty, cold, haze
They did not kill the burning desire in him -
Be proud, brave, fight against evil
To awaken holy hopes in others ...

"A man of the forties in the best sense of the term, an incorrigible idealist,<Плещеев>he put his living soul, his meek heart into his songs, and that is why they are so beautiful, ”wrote the publisher P.V. Bykov. A. Blok, reflecting in 1908 on old Russian poetry, especially noted Pleshcheev’s poems, which “woke up some dormant strings, evoked high and noble feelings.”

Contemporaries and later researchers of creativity noted the extraordinary clarity of mind, integrity of nature, kindness and nobility of Pleshcheev; characterized him as a person who "was notable for the purity of his soul that was not overshadowed by anything"; retained "despite all the dashing hard labor and soldiers' decades ... a childish faith in the purity and nobility of human nature, and was always inclined to exaggerate the talent of the next debutant poet."

Z. Gippius, who at the first personal meeting was “completely fascinated” by Pleshcheev, wrote down her first impressions of him in this way:

Noting that, as if without effort, “wonderful poems for children” came out from the pen of A. Pleshcheev, N. Bannikov remarked: “It can be seen that there was something in the poet’s heart that easily opened the world of a child to him.” As P. Bykov wrote, Pleshcheev "... all was reflected in his poetry, all with his conscience, clear as a crystal, fiery faith in goodness and people, with his whole personality, ... deeply sympathetic, gentle, soft."

Findings of researchers

Numerous propaganda poems were created among the Petrashevites, but few of them have survived. Presumably, many of Pleshcheev's propaganda poems also disappeared. There is an assumption that some unsigned works that appeared in the emigrant collections of the Lute series may belong to Pleshcheev; among them is the poem "The Righteous", marked: "S. Petersburg. January 18, 1847."
The poem “By feelings, we are brothers with you ...” (1846) was attributed to K. F. Ryleev for a long time. Its belonging to Pleshcheev was established in 1954 by E. Bushkants, who found out that the addressee was V. A. Milyutin (1826-1855), a member of the Petrashevsky circle, an economist, whose work Belinsky and Chernyshevsky paid attention to.
The poem "Autumn has come, the flowers have dried up ...", attributed to Pleshcheev in all collections of children's poetry, but absent in all collections of his works, does not actually belong to Pleshcheev. As the literary critic M.N. Zolotonosov established, the author of this text is the inspector of the Moscow educational district Alexei Grigorievich Baranov (1844-1911), the compiler of the collection where this poem was first published.
The poem “I feel sorry for her ...” (“Give me your hand. I understand your sinister sadness ...”) was published with a dedication to D. A. Tolstoy, with whom the poet was friends in his youth. Tolstoy, however, subsequently acquired a reputation as a "reactionary" and even became the chief of the gendarme corps. In this regard, as it turned out later, A. A. Pleshcheev, the son of the poet, urged P. V. Bykov not to include the poem in the collection or delete the dedication.
For a long time there were disputes about who could be addressed to the poem "S ... y" (1885), which began with the words: "Before you lies a wide new path ...". The most convincing was the version of S. A. Makashin, according to which Saltykov-Shchedrin was the addressee. In a magazine publication, it had the subtitle: "On entry into the field." Pleshcheev valued Shchedrin as "a really huge talent", and referred him to the "best people of his country."

Addresses

In Moscow: Nashchokinsky lane, 10 (the house has not been preserved); Trubnikovsky lane (on Prechistenka), 35; Arbat, 36; Malaya Dmitrovka, 22 (reconstructed); Gun lane, 3.
In St. Petersburg: 1872-1890 - the house of M. B. Bulatova - Bolshaya Spasskaya street, 1.

Artworks

Poems

During his lifetime, five collections of poems by A. N. Pleshcheev were published, the last of them in 1887. The most significant of the posthumous publications is considered to be the edition edited by P. V. Bykov: “Poems by A. N. Pleshcheev (1844-1891). Fourth, revised edition. St. Petersburg, 1905. During the Soviet era, Pleshcheev's poetic works were published in the Large and Small series of the Poet's Library.

Bibliography

Arsenyev K. K. One of the poets of the forties. Poems by A. N. Pleshcheev. // Bulletin of Europe, 1887, March, pp. 432-437.
Krasnov P. N. Pleshcheev's poetry. // Books of the Week, 1893, December, pp. 206-216.
Yudin P. L. Pleshcheev in reference. // Historical Bulletin, 1897, May.
Yudin P. L. To the biography of Pleshcheev. // Historical Bulletin, 1905, December.
Dandeville M. V. A. N. Pleshcheev in Fort Petrovsky. (According to unpublished letters). // Past years, 1908, October, pp. 103-141.
Sakulin P. N. Alexey Nikolaevich Pleshcheev. (1825-1893). // History of Russian literature of the XIX century. Edited by D. N. Ovsyaniko-Kulikovskiy. - M .: Mir Publishing House, 1911. - Volume 3. Pp. 481-490.
Pustilnik L. S. Life and work of A. N. Pleshcheev. - M.: Nauka, 1981. - 193 p.
A.N. Pleshcheev and Russian literature: a collection of scientific articles. - Kostroma: KSU im. ON THE. Nekrasova, 2006

The night is quiet... The wind barely stirs the dark sheets. My chest breathes with languor, And dreams are full of melancholy... Wonderful sounds rush, I hear, in the silence of the night: They will freeze, then they will again pour in a harmonic wave. Here, far away between the bushes, the Light in her window flashed ... As if with hot lips I clung to her lips! I would kiss the whole night in oblivion All kissed her, kissed ... And with tears of ecstasy I would pour my young breast ... But I alone ... Sad, boring! The light in the window went out ... The pesky bell was muffled The midnight hour rang ... * Notturno - Nocturne (Italian). - Ed.

Notturno (I hear familiar sounds...)

I hear familiar sounds Rushing in the stillness of the night - Past sleeping torments They awakened in me. I hear familiar sounds, I listened eagerly to them before And silently at the white hands, I looked at the bright eyes. I hear familiar sounds, And my heart hesitated: I remember, in the moment of parting, Sobbing, I listened to her. I hear familiar sounds And I see, again in front of me On the keys, white hands Glide, silvered by the moon ... * Notturno - Nocturne (Italian). - Ed.

A.N. Pleshcheev. Complete collection of poems. Poet's Library. Big series. Moscow, Leningrad: Soviet Writer, 1964.

Ball

(Excerpt) I remember the ball. Candles burned brightly, And motley groups flickered before me. I listened to jerky speeches, Lanner's motif dull and simple. But he listened to them casually and yawning, And with her eyes - he was looking for her alone. Where are you, always smart, alive, Like a moth? I haven't seen you for a long time, But all my thoughts rushed to you, You and at this moment they are still full; And I'm waiting for you, tired and gloomy, Like nature, I'm waiting for the breath of spring! And the boring ball lasted until late at night, I left it with mute annoyance, But suddenly her azure eyes, Like two stars, lit up before me. And I saw again, full of joy, And shoulders as white as the first snow of the fields, And thick waves of tar hair, And the light, slender figure of my beauty. But there is no former blush on the cheeks... Are you smiling through your tears? Are you sad? Are you tired, spinning in a whirlwind of dance, Or is sorrow hidden at the bottom of your soul? Are you really deceived by dreams And doomed to suffering? And her chest was highly agitated, And her languid gaze burned with a painful fire; And the torment was reflected in this gaze, As happiness was reflected in the days of bygone. And I bowed my head in thought; At first he was ready to start talking about the past, But, depressed by heavy longing, He remained, like a shadow, and gloomy and without words. I remember the ball, the candles were burning brightly... I watched the motley crowd aside. But my eyes were not looking for a joyful meeting - I did not expect anyone, and I was bored. Suddenly I heard sounds of Lanner - A dull waltz! He is familiar to the heart from ancient days, And I remembered love's disturbing torment, I remembered the brilliance of long-faded eyes! Yes! like a leaf yellowed in spring, In the morning of days you withered too, my angel; And I saw how you, in white clothes, In a wreath of white roses, lay under the brocade .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I remembered everything... And the music thundered, And the motley crowd whirled before me!

A.N. Pleshcheev. Complete collection of poems. Poet's Library. Big series. Moscow, Leningrad: Soviet Writer, 1964.

Unaccountable sadness

Fuhit das Herz ein Schen Und ein susses Weh. Ruckert * Spring night is cool, Fragrant and clear; In the clear sky, the Silvery moon quietly shines, And with its beam it kisses the chest of the cold river; Songs are heard across the river And lights flicker. I'm sad! Anguish in the heart Unaccountable lies, A tear runs down the cheek! Now the clouds have hidden the moon - You can no longer see the lights ... The songs have subsided ... Soon, my heart, Will you stop suffering! * The heart feels languor and sweet grief. Ruckert.

A.N. Pleshcheev. Complete collection of poems. Poet's Library. Big series. Moscow, Leningrad: Soviet Writer, 1964.

* * *

A pale ray of the moon broke through the mysterious foliage, And the wind brings the warm smell of mowed grass. If only I lay here, Under the canopy of these willows, In the distance, in the starry dome, Looking aimlessly; I would have listened to how the top of the slumbering Willow rustles, As on the dark bottom of a ravine, a spring murmurs over the stones. This is a quiet murmur, The rustle of leaves, the light of the moon - Everything brings me Conciliatory dreams ... Night! With your meek radiance, For a weary me, You are dearer and sweeter than a Brightly shining day...

A.N. Pleshcheev. Complete collection of poems. Poet's Library. Big series. Moscow, Leningrad: Soviet Writer, 1964.

* * *

In court, he heard the verdict - His galleys were waiting: He was a poor man, and he was a thief. For a week the children were starving, And, dejected by poverty, His wife looked into the coffin; Works, worries, sorrows, To know, were beyond her strength; And he succumbed to temptation: He stole bread for his family. And the condemnation dispassionately Read him the Sanhedrin; It seemed that terrible poverty None of them was struck; The example is not new, and in vain Regret - the law is inexorable! Only one human grief Was available at that moment, Love shone in one glance: He looked - both meek and great - In the midst of silent silence, Christ crucified - from the wall ...

A.N. Pleshcheev. Complete collection of poems. Poet's Library. Big series. Moscow, Leningrad: Soviet Writer, 1964.

Spring (Again spring smelled through my window ...)

Again, in the spring, my window smelled, And I breathe more joyfully and freely ... In my chest, the oppressive longing fell asleep, A swarm of bright thoughts comes to replace it. The snows have gone... The icy fetters Do not burden the sparkling wave... And the distant, dumb Fields of my native land are waiting for the plow. Oh, how I would like to go there from these stuffy rooms - to the open space, Where there are no crackling and soulless phrases, Where the orgy of the corrupt choir does not thunder. To the fields! into the fields! Familiar nature Beckons with bashful beauty... Into the fields! there the song of the resurrected people, Free and powerful, sounds.

A.N. Pleshcheev. Complete collection of poems. Poet's Library. Big series. Moscow, Leningrad: Soviet Writer, 1964.

Spring (The snow is already melting...)

The snow is already melting, streams are running, Spring breezes through the window... Nightingales will soon whistle, And the forest will be dressed in foliage! The azure sky is clear, The sun has become warmer and brighter, The time for evil blizzards and storms has passed again for a long time. And the heart beats so strongly in the chest, as if waiting for something, As if happiness is ahead And the winter of care has taken away! All faces look merry. "Spring!" - you read in every glance; And he, like a holiday, is happy with her, Whose life is only hard work and grief. But frisky children ringing laughter And carefree birds singing They say to me - who loves renewal more than all Nature!

A.N. Pleshcheev. Complete collection of poems. Poet's Library. Big series. Moscow, Leningrad: Soviet Writer, 1964.

* * *

Forward! without fear and doubt On a valiant feat, friends! The dawn of holy redemption Already in heaven I saw! Be brave! Let's give each other hands And move forward together. And let our Union grow stronger and grow under the banner of science. We will punish the priests of sin and lies with the Verb of truth, And we will wake the sleeping ones from sleep And lead the army to battle! Let us not create an idol for ourselves Neither on earth nor in heaven; For all the gifts and blessings of the world We will not fall before him in the dust!.. Proclaim the teachings of love We will be poor, rich, And for him we will endure persecution, Forgiving the crazy executioners! Blessed is he who has exhausted his life in the bloody struggle, In grave worries; Like a lazy and crafty slave, He did not bury his talent in the ground! May the holy truth burn with a guiding star for us; And believe me, the noble voice will not sound in vain in the world! Listen well, brothers, to the word of a brother, While we are full of youthful strength: Forward, forward, and without return, Whatever fate promises us in the distance!

A.N. Pleshcheev. Complete collection of poems. Poet's Library. Big series. Moscow, Leningrad: Soviet Writer, 1964.

Hidalgo

Midnight. The streets of Madrid And deserted and dark. Footsteps do not sound on the slabs, And the balconies are not doused with the Light of the pale moon. The wind breathes fragrance, The dark green branches It barely sways... And no one will hear us, O sister of my soul! Wrap yourself up in your satin cloak And go out into the alley. The husband fell asleep ... Fear is in vain. You will rest safely With a hidalgo on your chest. Or like a worm until the morning Jealousy gnaws at the old man's heart? I swore by your beauty I'll take revenge on your husband... He won't control you! I know: you were sold to him by an evil family! Come out on a date, my wonderful Donya! The night is full of fragrance, And for a long time I have been waiting for your kisses under the canopy of myrtle! ..

A.N. Pleshcheev. Complete collection of poems. Poet's Library. Big series. Moscow, Leningrad: Soviet Writer, 1964.

Dachas

I love you girls! You go to yourself at night, And the windows, balconies are all open; And the sound of the pianoforte rushes from there, And the tunes flow in the stillness of the night. But suddenly a head appeared at the window; Here black eyes shine like stars, On the shoulders of lily silk curls, Satin cheeks burn with a blush! And you look - and the night is so fresh and clear, And it smells of roses, and the moon shines!

A.N. Pleshcheev. Complete collection of poems. Poet's Library. Big series. Moscow, Leningrad: Soviet Writer, 1964.

Desdemona

(Viardo Garcia) 1 When your silvery voice, O Desdemona, I listened, My soul was full of rapture, fiery and pure! I said: no, these sounds are pouring from heavenly heights; Empty, barren life of torment We are given to delight! I in this wonderful moment People and the world forgot everything: I was all hearing and admiration, I greedily caught every sound! Whether you prayed or wept, Or softly sang a song of love - How my heart beat, sank At the sounds of those in my chest! Shakespeare's bright creature You understood so deeply And Desdemona conveyed all the suffering So faithfully to us! 2 Meanwhile, as the noise of applause And the cries of the hall announced, Only I alone sat in silence, I did not express delight in anything. I did not throw you bouquets, I did not throw you a wreath; But the verse has matured in the soul of the poet - Accept it: here is my flower! Accept it... Although it does not shine With the beauty of a southern flower, But the sun also enlivens Leaves and roses... and cornflower!

A.N. Pleshcheev. Complete collection of poems. Poet's Library. Big series. Moscow, Leningrad: Soviet Writer, 1964.

* * *

The children of the century are all sick, - They tell me everywhere, - They walk pale, thin, Everything is in discord with their lives. Not! In vain the old men have slandered the poor age; Look: in front of you is a Modern Man. Cheeks as if with frost, So blush and burn; How decent this pose, How calm this look. You impulses of passion Do not notice him; But how full of respect He is for his virtues. He resolves all questions easily, without distant thoughts; Does not disturb, does not confuse Never doubt the mind. And with a sharp, sweet mockery How he knows how to prick The dissatisfied, that sadly they look at the worldly path, Prejudices hate, Everything repeats about the ideal And they see only evil and death In what the world recognized as good. Light pleasant conversation And his mind is captivated; The ladies exclaim in chorus: “How sweet he is! how smart he is!" Not! In vain old age cocks Slander on a poor age: Modern man spends a blissful life!

Duma (Like children or slaves...)

Like children or slaves, obedient to tradition, How often in life we are indifferent To the fact that our heart should be torn apart, That tears should be torn from our eyes. We don't want to cry, we don't want to be tormented And prejudices seek execution in doubts; Wouldn't it be better to blindly obey them in everything, And calmly blame fate for disasters! And, walking past the victims in a noisy crowd, To sigh and say: so decreed by fate! When conscience suddenly wakes up and tells us: "The culprit of your troubles is you, miserable mortal, yourself ... You are deaf as an idol, you remained in my voice And, having created a ghost, obeyed him!" - We will hasten to drown out the cry of the heart soon To not poison the peace of our days! When, among the crowd, sometimes the Prophet appears with a mighty, great soul, With the verb of the sacred truth on his lips, - Alas, he is rejected! The crowd does not find the Teachings of love and truth in his words... It seems to her a shame to listen to his speeches, And, inspired, when he starts to broadcast - With a mockery, everyone away, waving his hand, departs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

A.N. Pleshcheev. Complete collection of poems. Poet's Library. Big series. Moscow, Leningrad: Soviet Writer, 1964.

I feel sorry for her

(To Count D. A. Tolstoy) Give me your hand... I understand Your ominous sadness And, full of secret torments, I heed Your words: " Her I'm sorry." As sometimes in a wide river A torn leaf rushes like a storm, Pale, lonely, Where its stream leads, - So she, by the command of fate, Always submissive, will go Without tears, without complaints and reproach, Where he will lead her. In her chest lurks Now there's so much Love... My God, Don't let it waste the Fire you kindled in the desert! , friend, I understand Your ominous sadness And, full of sadness, I repeat With you myself: " Her I'm sorry".

A.N. Pleshcheev. Complete collection of poems. Poet's Library. Big series. Moscow, Leningrad: Soviet Writer, 1964.

* * *

If you want your days to fly peacefully, Clearly, Throw away anxious questions And lofty goals. Let the eagles soar high Somewhere out there, under the clouds; What do you care about them! Like a wolf Howl to yourself, living with wolves. Believe, much more to the point, Putting aside empty nonsense About these air castles, Stand for an hour in the front; More often flatter those who are strong (But not rudely flatter - with skill), Than uselessly attack untruth with bitterness. Do not disdain fools - This is the power in our time; Thou wilt not diminish Their breeding tribe with mockery. Listen to their nonsense patiently: Some of them, perhaps, will help to jump out into people; Anyone can salt. Adhere to the generally accepted morality strictly And go without deviating, Thorn, beaten by the road. In those who turn away from her, Full of zealous zeal, And you throw stones and mud without mercy. So that no misfortune happens, Be true to the Diplomat's dictum: "Do not succumb to the Heart's first movement"; Give up dreams of the good of your neighbors, Be an exemplary family man; And provide a faithful income for his wife and children. And your age will pass happily; And if you leave our mortal world, Everyone will say, going behind the coffin: "Here, the venerable husband died; He was too good for the world, That's why he was taken by God." And honor you, perhaps, Even the press with an obituary.

A.N. Pleshcheev. Complete collection of poems. Poet's Library. Big series. Moscow, Leningrad: Soviet Writer, 1964.

* * *

There are days: no malice, no love, No thirst for deeds, no striving for the truth - Nothing excites my blood; And the heart sleeps, and the mind is in a daze. I remain deaf to the calls of life; I look so coldly, so impassively At everything that once my spirit Disturbed and tormented all the time. And the feminine caress in me In those days does not even find an answer; In inactivity, in a shameful dream of the Soul's forces, an hour passes by the hour. I'm scared, scared for myself; I'm afraid that my heart won't cool down at all, So that I won't lose my feelings, As long as there's fire in my blood and strength in my body. For years I am not old yet... Oh God, all those who yearn for redemption, Do not let the heat of the heart's ashes Fall asleep with deadly doubt!

A.N. Pleshcheev. Complete collection of poems. Poet's Library. Big series. Moscow, Leningrad: Soviet Writer, 1964.

* * *

Why, at the sound of these songs, Familiar songs of antiquity, You, heart, began to beat so strongly, As if in the days of your spring? Have the raptures and sorrows, All the storms of youthful years, Left an indelible mark on you forever? You passionately believed, loved - But life broke all dreams. Life spared nothing, Before which you were in awe! And it gets colder year after year. Blood began to flow in you ... Why are you startled? Or the flame, long extinguished, flared up again? Or is it just a pity for you of the past: Anxiety and feelings experienced? But, like a wave that rushed off into the distance, Do not return them to us anymore! Leave vain impulses, Forget old worries... Oh! it would be better for us to fall asleep to these sounds with you!

A.N. Pleshcheev. Complete collection of poems. Poet's Library. Big series. Moscow, Leningrad: Soviet Writer, 1964.

Sounds

Don't shut up, don't shut up! These sounds are pleasing to the heart, At least for a single moment, let torment slumber in the patient's chest. The excitement of the past, ancient days Your song reminds me; And tears flow from my eyes, And sweetly my heart stops... And it seems to me that I hear a familiar voice, dear to my heart; He used to draw me Towards him by some wonderful force; And as if again in front of me A calm, quiet look shines And the soul with sweet anguish, Fills me with anguish of bliss ... So sing! The chest breathes easier, And doubts of torment subsided in it ... Oh, if I could ever die to these sounds!

* * *

Familiar sounds, wonderful sounds! Oh, how much power you have been given! Past happiness, past torments, And the joy of rendezvous, and tears of parting... You are destined to resurrect everything. Familiar shadows appear again, They pass one after another... And the heart is ready to believe the deceit, And thirsts, and prays for the whole life of the past, Warmed by the passion of the past. And everything that was killed by the fruitless struggle Again stirred in my chest... To a valiant feat, to a battle with fate I go bravely, and Hope burns ahead like a bright star. In a loving look, in a smile of participation I read a long time ago that we love; I'm not afraid of thunderstorms, I'm not afraid of bad weather; I know - love infinite happiness awaits me behind him! Enough, enough!.. shut up, sounds! You are tormenting my chest... Past happiness, past torments, And the joy of rendezvous, and tears of parting, O heart! forever forget!

Vsevolod Rozhdestvensky. Favorites. M., L.: Fiction, 1965.

From Heine (Take the drum...)

Take the drum and don't be afraid, Kiss the ringer louder! This is the meaning of the deepest art, This is the meaning of all philosophy! Knock harder, and wake up those sleeping from sleep with anxiety! This is the deepest meaning of art; And march ahead! Here is Hegel! That's book wisdom! Here is the spirit of philosophical beginnings! For a long time I comprehended this secret, For a long time I became a drummer!

A.N. Pleshcheev. Complete collection of poems. Poet's Library. Big series. Moscow, Leningrad: Soviet Writer, 1964.

Hypochondria

It is terrible to think that such an End is destined for the drama of life; That you will be in a narrow, dark pit Lying motionless and dumb; That the worms will begin to sharpen Your abandoned body - To sharpen the heart that is skillful And to hate and love. And after many, many years Some idle dreamer Will find your ugly skull And take it to his office, So that instead of marble He lays on sheets of dusty paper Or children, a tenant of the grave, How they play pranks, frightened.

A.N. Pleshcheev. Complete collection of poems. Poet's Library. Big series. Moscow, Leningrad: Soviet Writer, 1964.

To D... (When I pressed...)

(From Byron) When I pressed you to my chest, Full of love and happiness and reconciled with fate, I thought: only death will separate us from you; But here we are separated by the envy of people! Let you forever, lovely creature, Their malice torn away from my heart; But, believe me, they will not drive your image out of him Until your friend has fallen under the burden of suffering! And if the dead leave their shelter And the ashes from the ashes will be reborn to eternal life, Again my forehead will bow on your chest: There is no paradise for me, where you are not with me!

A.N. Pleshcheev. Complete collection of poems. Poet's Library. Big series. Moscow, Leningrad: Soviet Writer, 1964.

* * *

When I meet a man tormented by the struggle, Under the yoke of experience, a man drooping; And with a bitter speech, mocking and evil Shame betrays the age mired in lies; And faith in the human race in his chest faded, And the spirit that was once full of powerful forces, Like a night lamp, extinguished without oil, Without faith and love, became weak and frail; And the ray of truth, sparkling beyond the distance of the coming days, is invisible to his eyes - How painful it is for me! Deep sadness At the meeting of that I am tormented. And then I say: appear, appear to us again, Lord, in our poor world, where there is grief and discord; May the divine word sound again And call your backslidden children to life!

Vsevolod Rozhdestvensky. Favorites. M., L.: Fiction, 1965.

* * *

When I'm in a crowded hall, Anxious with a secret, I listen to Strauss's wonderful sounds, Now full of sadness, now alive; When the crowd dazzles before me by the light of bright candles; And now, with a young smile And the whiteness of transparent shoulders Shining, you come up to me, fixing a long gaze on me, And you start a conversation with me, A flying, ballroom conversation ... Oh, why is it so sad, it hurts I suddenly feel? .. You barely I answer, and involuntarily, my head bows to my chest. And everything seems to me, by fate You are doomed to torment, What will be a hard struggle And this chest is exhausted; That the gaze burns with the fire of suffering, In vain hiding a tear; What a joyless sob Behind the ringing laughter I hear! And I'm sorry, sorry for you - and tears are ready to sink from my eyes ... But these are all sick dreams of my frustrated soul! Forgive me friend; not knowing boredom, Forgetting the prophetic speech, spin, flutter under these sounds In the bright light of ballroom candles!

A.N. Pleshcheev. Complete collection of poems. Poet's Library. Big series. Moscow, Leningrad: Soviet Writer, 1964.

Legend

The Christ Child had a garden, And he grew many roses in it; He watered them three times a day, To weave a wreath for himself later. When the roses bloomed, Jewish children with about he called; They plucked a flower, And the whole garden was devastated. “How will you weave a wreath now? There are no more roses in your garden!” - "You have forgotten that the thorns are left to me," said Christ. And out of thorns they wove a thorny wreath for him, And drops of blood instead of roses adorned his forehead. Note: translation from an unknown English poet.

A.N. Pleshcheev. Complete collection of poems. Poet's Library. Big series. Moscow, Leningrad: Soviet Writer, 1964.

* * *

[M. P. I-I] I love to strive with a dream Into that fertile country, Where the myrtle, bowing its head, Kisses the bright wave; Where the cypresses majestically ascended To the azure of the sky, Where sweet-sounding octaves poured from the mouths of Torquat; Where Dante, gloomy and stern, Called shadows from hell; At the feet of Laura, Petrarch cast his laurel crown; Where Raphael, reverent, Depicted the face of the Madonna; From the mass of marble Psyche Canova erected a powerful finger; Where at the hour, when the moon is shining, The wide bay is ribbed And fragrant breath Pours roses and lemons everywhere, - A gondola mysteriously glides Through unsteady and dumb moisture, And the barcarolle freezes, Like a kiss, in the stillness of the night! .. Where you lived ... Where you flourished Luxuriously proud beauty! Oh, tell me how you dreamed in the direction of the magical one! I will listen to you ... And I will fix a quiet look into your eyes - And the sky of the southern, marvelous night They will replace the poet! ..

A.N. Pleshcheev. Complete collection of poems. Poet's Library. Big series. Moscow, Leningrad: Soviet Writer, 1964.

Singer love

On my chest with a beautiful forehead, I pray, bow down, my faithful friend! At least for a moment in a passionate kiss We will find oblivion and peace! And there, give me your hand - and with you We will proudly carry our cross And we will not send prayers for happiness to heaven in the struggle with fate not buried in the ground! To suffer for all, to suffer immeasurably, To find happiness only in pain, To strike hypocritical priests of Baal with the verb of truth, To proclaim the teachings of love Everywhere - to the poor, to the rich - The lot of the poet ... I will not give up worries For the blessings of the world. And you! In your breast torment Hidden also, I know, And not a cup of pleasure awaits, - Vial poisoned you! For a sultry and deep passion You were born - and for a long time The crowd of senseless, cruel You are not afraid of a sentence. And for a long time, without regret About the stupid happiness of past days, You suffer, with one forgiveness Paying your enemies for their malice! Oh, give me your hand - and with you We will proudly carry our cross And we will not send prayers for happiness to heaven in the struggle with fate! ..

A.N. Pleshcheev. Complete collection of poems. Poet's Library. Big series. Moscow, Leningrad: Soviet Writer, 1964.

* * *

Me evil and stupid jokes, Life, you played with me, And I'm standing at the crossroads I'm with my head bowed. Heart's best impulses And favorite dreams You ridiculed mercilessly, You smashed to smithereens. You slyly incited me To an unequal battle, And in that battle I spent A lot of passion and fire. Only people for fun Soon exhausted; And I was left with the consciousness That I am weak and frail. Well! I'll go by the road, I thought, following the crowd, Modest, quiet, well-intentioned, Throwing youthful delirium. What a smooth road! The stones here do not cut the legs. If I had walked along it before, I would not have been so exhausted. And the goal is much closer; A peaceful pier in sight ... How many pleasures of the Unexplored will I find there! But alas! I did not have long to go To this goal, And again I found myself On a country road. And all these dreams are to blame, These dreams of the past ... Relentless, with me They walked hand in hand. And they beckoned everything somewhere, And whispered something to me, So many cute images Showed aside. I rushed to meet them, full of new strength: I walked through prickly thorns, I descended into the gloomy abyss. And I already thought - I'm going up To my dear ghosts, But in vain, tired, I stretched out my hands to them. Darlings moved away, flew away from me... And suddenly, at a crossroads, I was caught at night. How long will my night last And what awaits me beyond it, I do not know; I only know that there is longing in my soul. But not a tortuous road, Early abandoned by me, Awakens regret At this moment in the soul of the sick. I'm sorry for the ghosts of my loved ones, It's a pity for the luxurious bright dreams, That so early the day, hiding, On its rays carried away!

Vsevolod Rozhdestvensky. Favorites. M., L.: Fiction, 1965.

grave

Leaves rustled sadly At night in the autumn sometimes; The coffin was lowered into the grave, The coffin illuminated by the moon. Quietly, without weeping, they buried And they all went away, Only the moon looked at the grave sadly all night.

A.N. Pleshcheev. Complete collection of poems. Poet's Library. Big series. Moscow, Leningrad: Soviet Writer, 1964.

My acquaintance

He was poor. His father... He was poor. (His father served in the hussars for a century, He loved dancers and completely ruined the estate.) And he was an ardent liberal: He energetically punished all the weaknesses of people, Although he did not write articles. He could not bear to bend his back, He loved the poor class, He loved to prick the landowners With an evil satire at times. And Georges Sand and Leroux He was passionately carried away, He taught good husbands, He tried to develop wives. When fate pushed my friend into the wilderness, He thought that he would be tempered by the fight against ignorance. All covetous, scoundrels He dreamed of being a thunderstorm; And for the rights of orphans and widows He swore to stand as a mountain. But, ah! the future from us Thick darkness hides; He did not think that the hour was near to enter into a lawful marriage. Although he betrayed the curse Empty, soulless light, But in the province he was captivated by a Maiden at the age of thirty. She had other ideas... Zand was not familiar to her, But they gave her three hundred souls And a three-story house. He got married, he fell in love with the life of a friend himself ... His wife immediately introduced him into the provincial highest circle. And he began to give dinners, And considered it an honor, When the nobility came to him, To eat well. And if a general sometimes appeared in his house, He, from happiness himself not his own, He met on the porch. The tough wife had a temper; And the house and three hundred souls Gave her so many rights... And the husband submitted. Although sometimes he still punished evil in the circle of friends, But he looked more condescendingly At the weaknesses of people. Although he did not completely lose The gift of a mighty word, But somehow his spiritual heat cooled with his wife. It used to be that he would only start a dispute About the serfs, You look, and his wife’s gaze is clamped to his mouth. And I met him later In another province; He was with a decent belly And had a big rank. Before him all the bureaucratic people And trembled and trembled; And not three hundred souls - He had five hundred of his own. He judged virtue behind a deck of cards... When a young man sometimes got into a passion before him, He condemned disobedience Like a true bureaucrat... And cast a lightning glance at the guilty person...

Vsevolod Rozhdestvensky. Favorites. M., L.: Fiction, 1965.

Silence

(From M. Hartmann) Not a word, oh my friend, not a sigh... We will be silent with you... After all, silently over the grave stone Sad willows bend... And only bending down, they read, Like me, in your tired eyes, That there were days of clear happiness That this happiness is gone!

Wonderful Moment. Love lyrics of Russian poets. Moscow: Fiction, 1988.

plea

And raising their gaze to the sky, They are filled with sadness - From the depths of the sick soul, Tortured soul, they cried out: “We don’t have the strength for a feat! Our heart bleeds, Unequal battle wearied us, Look, look at us with love!” With the word of peace on our lips We went to meet our brethren, Where did their sudden fear come from, Where did this cry of curses come from? Hearing our speech, they grabbed Swords and stones And to the judges in wild exasperation Shouted furiously: “Crucify! Have we really ignited enmity and malice In the hearts of people Only by the fact that we loved more than evil and darkness Good and light? What called on the rich, And the mighty of the world, and the free Not to drive the Naked, and the orphans, and the hungry from their meal? And now, rejected by people, We are exhausted in a long battle. Oh god of truth! look out for your persecuted children in prayer! Soften the hearts of the embittered, Open the eyes of the blind and sleeping, And let at least pale rays Shine in the deep darkness of the night!

A.N. Pleshcheev. Complete collection of poems. Poet's Library. Big series. Moscow, Leningrad: Soviet Writer, 1964.

At the call of friends

What is your call, friends? Anxious melancholy Cheerful, noisy feast, why should I poison? In enthusiastic verses, behind golden moisture, I have not been able to glorify Bacchus for a long time! The rampant hangover does not amuse me, And the former blood does not boil in me with courage; Gone are the days of past crazy fun, Gone are the days of past crazy love! But it seems like a long time ago, filled with hope, I gazed trustingly at the future, And doubts and suffering were alien to me, And, simple-hearted, I thought about happiness. In terrible nakedness, the disasters of my native country did not yet appear to me, And the torments of the brothers did not yet excite the spirit; But now he has received his sight, and peace is alien to him! Do I sometimes enter the golden chambers, Where the sybarite spends his life in pleasure, Do I look at the palaces, at the centuries-old temples, - Everything speaks to me of centuries of suffering. Am I sitting surrounded by a noisy crowd At a great feast - I hear the sound of chains; And appears in the distance, like a ghost, before me The divine plebeian crucified on the cross! .. And ashamed, ashamed of me ... From the place of jubilation, Excited, I run under my humble shelter; But there the consciousness of insignificance oppresses me, And then I'm ready to cry out my whole soul! Happy is the one who lived a century without painful doubts, Who looked with hope to heaven; But I know no regrets about that happiness And I won't give up my suffering for it! Oh, don’t call me, I beg you, Merry friends, for your noisy holiday: I haven’t glorified the God of grapes for a long time, And I won’t forget myself under the sound of sonorous bowls! ..

A.N. Pleshcheev. Complete collection of poems. Poet's Library. Big series. Moscow, Leningrad: Soviet Writer, 1964.

For memory

When, in spite of my desires, the will of fate will separate us, Let my verse recollection In you of the past will awaken; It will remind you of who found happiness Only with you in life, Who paid you for friendship and participation With sincere love; Who never lavished flattering words on you in front of the crowd, But, inspired by beauty, Secretly dedicated his verse to you... He will remind you of everything - and, at your leisure Reading your cherished album, You will regret your friend, Sigh, maybe about him. So we are sometimes reminded by a dried flower of spring, the sound of a sad song spews tears from the eyes of antiquity.

A.N. Pleshcheev. Complete collection of poems. Poet's Library. Big series. Moscow, Leningrad: Soviet Writer, 1964.

chant

Oh, why is my soul full of languor And strange dreams, When in the silence of solitude Do I hear a familiar chant? These sounds do not awaken in the heart of Sorrow, silent for a long time, Neither the pangs of love, nor the tears of separation They are not destined to resurrect. But I love your inviting voice, The melody of the distant side, Like the mournful murmur of the sea In the hours of evening silence ...

Vsevolod Rozhdestvensky. Favorites. M., L.: Fiction, 1965.

* * *

Not! Better death without return, Than a shameful world with darkness and evil, Than to look at the death of a brother with malevolent triumph. Not! It is better to take away untimely with you into a dark grave And the ardor of the heart and the strength of the spirit, And the swarm of insane, passionate dreams, Than, becoming dumber and fatter, Dragging out your life senselessly, With the false humility of the Pharisee Saying: "Man is powerless", Than to exchange for a dream gratifying And honest work, and an honest fight And imperceptibly in the stinking mud, Get bogged down with your head in the mud!

Russian poets. Anthology in four volumes. Moscow: Children's Literature, 1968.

* * *

The lights went out in the house, And everything calmed down in it; In their beds, the children fell asleep sweetly. From distant skies, the moon meekly looks at them; The whole room is illuminated by Her radiance. Branches of birches and poplars look out of the garden And whisper: "We protect the quiet sleep of children; Let the little ones dream joyful All night long, Wonderful visions From a fairy-tale land. When the silent night Will come to replace the day, Their dreams will be interrupted by the song of the bird Merry ... Flowers like dear brothers, They will send their greetings to them, Nodding their heads, Shining with dew ... "

A.N. Pleshcheev. Complete collection of poems. Poet's Library. Big series. Moscow, Leningrad: Soviet Writer, 1964.

* * *

He resignedly walked the thorny path, He joyfully met both death and shame; The lips that spoke the teachings of strict truth did not utter reproach to the mocking crowd. He walked resignedly and, crucified on the cross, bequeathed to the nations both brotherhood and love; For this sinful world, embraced by darkness, His holy blood was shed for the neighbor. Oh, weak children of the skeptical age! Or does not that mighty image speak to you About the appointment of a great man And does not call the sleeping will to a feat? Oh no! I don't believe. Self-interest and vanity have not completely drowned out the voice of truth in us; Another day will come... The teaching of Christ will breathe both life and strength into our dilapidated world!

A.N. Pleshcheev. Complete collection of poems. Poet's Library. Big series. Moscow, Leningrad: Soviet Writer, 1964.

Autumn

I recognize you, sad time: These short, pale days, Long nights, rainy, dark, And destruction - everywhere you look. The faded leaves are falling from the tree, In the field, turning yellow, the bushes have drooped; Endless clouds float across the sky... Boring autumn!... Yes, it's you! I recognize you, a dull time, A time of heavy and bitter worries: The heart, which once loved so passionately, Crushes the oppression of a deadly doubt; One after another, the proud holy dreams of youth fade away in him, And gray hair breaks through... Tiresome old age!.. Yes, it's you!

A.N. Pleshcheev. Complete collection of poems. Poet's Library. Big series. Moscow, Leningrad: Soviet Writer, 1964.

Answer

We are close to each other... I know, But alien in spirit... I haven't had love for you for a long time, And my words are cold... I can't lie to you, But the truth is terrible for you... Why Should we torment ourselves with a fruitless struggle? I can't see God in idols, I can't bow my brow before them! I am destined to hate everything, What you slavishly used to honor! “Whoever is true, faithful to his vocation, Doomed himself irrevocably, And leaves his house and family without grumbling,” the prophet told us... Oh, believe me, reproaches are in vain: We must part with you... We are far from love to each other, Friend we are strangers to each other in soul! ..

A.N. Pleshcheev. Complete collection of poems. Poet's Library. Big series. Moscow, Leningrad: Soviet Writer, 1964.

Song (Let's go ashore; there are waves...)

Let's go out to b e reg; there the waves will kiss our feet; Stars with mysterious sadness Will shine over us. There a fragrant breeze Will develop your curls; Let's go out ... Sadly swaying, Poplar calls us to him. In a long and sweet oblivion, Listening to the noise of branches, We will rest from sorrow, We will forget people. They tormented us a lot, Tortured us a lot, my friend: Those - with their stupid love, Those - with endless enmity. We will forget everything, as the moon will shine in the dark azure, Everything - like nature and god The nightingale will sing the Hymn!

A.N. Pleshcheev. Complete collection of poems. Poet's Library. Big series. Moscow, Leningrad: Soviet Writer, 1964.

Song (Good night! - you said...)

"Good night!" - you said, Giving me a hand, And wished a lot of happiness, A lot of joy in a dream. "Let the cute features dream until dawn!" - Smiling slyly, You told a friend! And your wishes came true, And I saw you! All your eyes I dreamed, Eyes full of fire! I dreamed - in a cozy little room We are sitting with you together; The Moon draws patterns on the floor with a pale-yellow ray. You drew me to your chest with your lily hand, Gently kissed my eyes And whispered to me: " I love!"And I dreamed so much more ... What a wonderful, sweet dream! Wish it happened to me in reality! ..

A.N. Pleshcheev. Complete collection of poems. Poet's Library. Big series. Moscow, Leningrad: Soviet Writer, 1964.

Song (Everything is quiet, the moon looks...)

Everything is quiet, the moon looks into the waters of unsteady rivers; Songs are heard across the river And lights flicker. Why does my heart hurt so much? Is it a pity for the days of the past, Or the future frightens Unrevealed distance? Why is there languor in the chest? And blurs the eyes of a tear? Or is a storm gathering over me again? Now the moon has hid in the clouds, The lights can no longer be seen; The song subsided... Soon, my heart, Will you stop suffering?

A.N. Pleshcheev. Complete collection of poems. Poet's Library. Big series. Moscow, Leningrad: Soviet Writer, 1964.

* * *

By feelings, we are brothers, We both believe in redemption, And we will feed to the grave Enmity to the scourges of our native country. When the desired hour strikes And the sleeping peoples rise - The holy army of freedom Will see us in its ranks. With love for the truth, holy In you, I know, your heart is beating, And, surely, there will be a response in it To my incorruptible voice.

Vsevolod Rozhdestvensky. Favorites. M., L.: Fiction, 1965.

* * *

After the thunder, after the storm, After the heavy, gloomy days The dome of azure cleared up, The heart became more cheerful. But for how long? .. New clouds are running over the sea ... Sun with clouds, joy with grief Inseparable, to know, they live!

A.N. Pleshcheev. Complete collection of poems. Poet's Library. Big series. Moscow, Leningrad: Soviet Writer, 1964.

sorry

Sorry, sorry, it's time! We must part with you; My sail turns white, and the stars Light up in the blue firmament. Oh, let your tired head lie down on your chest, For the last time, pour tears over And the silk of your hair, and the marble of your shoulders! And there we will part for a long time ... When will we meet again, Child! in the hearts, perhaps, the cold Will replace the old love! Perhaps all the past is impudent Then together we will ridicule, Although furtively from each other We will shed an involuntary tear ... Forgive me, friend! My soul is full of sadness... But the hour has come, And the silvery wave is calling me on the way with an impatient splash...

Vsevolod Rozhdestvensky. Favorites. M., L.: Fiction, 1965.

farewell song

Bright angel, dear angel! You want to leave us - And my dull melody flies to you for the last time. Wants to break the heart; Eyes blurred with tears. I pray: to admire Give the last time you! Oh, appear to me as before At the cherished window, And as delightful as hope, And beautiful as spring! Forgetting parting, And the longing of the coming days, I will plunge into the contemplation of your unearthly beauty. I admire the silence of Your blue eyes, Golden curls wave, Pale marble shoulders. All in vain. Dear angel! Know you can't hear me. Flowers only sway sadly at your window...

A.N. Pleshcheev. Complete collection of poems. Poet's Library. Big series. Moscow, Leningrad: Soviet Writer, 1964.

heart

Tell me, how long are you destined to err, O heart? It's time to part with dreams ... We are old people with you for a long time. And you, in spite of years and fate, Beat more anxiously and stronger (Though you see little use in this), Than beat in the days of your spring. When amidst the disturbances of the world, In the noisy and empty crowd, The words of your favorite poet Will be spoken before you, Or the voice of strict science About the eternal truth speaks, What an alarm you will sound, What a fire burns in you! Shining with bashful beauty, Will feminine features flash - In pure delight, fading, Towards them, how you are torn. Oh stop it! It would be possible to understand Long, long ago in your years, That poetry is nonsense, That eternal truth is a dream! That it’s somehow strange to worship beauty in our age, useful, That now a person’s aspirations should not be the same ... Understand that the truth is where the power is, Where the achievement of earthly blessings, And, forgetting everything that you loved, Live and fight only for them!

Vsevolod Rozhdestvensky. Favorites. M., L.: Fiction, 1965.

Words for music

(Dedicated to P.N. O[strovskoy]) The meek stars shone for us, A gentle breeze blew a little, The flowers were fragrant all around, And the waves murmured gently at our feet. We were young, we loved, And with faith we looked into the distance; Rainbow dreams lived in us, And we were not afraid of blizzards of Gray winter. Where are these nights with their radiance, With fragrant beauty And mysterious murmuring of the waves? Hopes, enthusiastic dreams Where is the bright swarm? The stars have faded, and faded flowers have drooped sadly... When, oh heart, all that was, What spring gave us with you, Will you forget?

A.N. Pleshcheev. Complete collection of poems. Poet's Library. Big series. Moscow, Leningrad: Soviet Writer, 1964.

* * *

I look at her and admire: She flutters like a bird, And her childish smile, Like a May morning, is clear. I look and admire, and my heart Habitual thought oppresses: Perhaps, this gloomy fate awaits this head too. And soon, perhaps, the brow will droop Under the storm of life, The eyes will be clouded with tears, That they look at the world so brightly. There will come a difficult time of Anguish and spiritual anxieties... But still, let it be better to suffer In her fate, fate sends her, Than bottomless pool of vulgarity, That swallowed up so many victims, Where so many perish without a trace And honest aspirations and forces.

A.N. Pleshcheev. Complete collection of poems. Poet's Library. Big series. Moscow, Leningrad: Soviet Writer, 1964.

* * *

Again I, full of thoughts, I look into the book of the past, But I don’t find many pages that please my heart! Here are vain aspirations - There is vain love, And stronger year by year The blood in the heart grows cold. And sometimes it seemed to me, Happiness was found; The same grief! It only pretended to be happiness! Every day the road of life Everything becomes more boring... And, obedient to the will of fate, Sluggishly I wander along it! Without hope, without desire, Like a wave rolls into the distance... I don't see a goal ahead, And I don't feel sorry for the past!

A.N. Pleshcheev. Complete collection of poems. Poet's Library. Big series. Moscow, Leningrad: Soviet Writer, 1964.

Sleep (tormented by longing...)

(Excerpt from an unfinished poem) La terre est triste et dessechee; mais elle reverdira. L "haleine du mechant ne passera pas eternellement sur elle comme un souffle qui brule. "Paroles d'un croyant". . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tormented by melancholy, tormented by fatigue, I lay down to rest under thick sycamore. The two-horned moon, like the sickle of a crooked reaper, In the azure height shone above me. Everything was silent all around ... Transparent and clear, Only a wave sometimes broke on a rock. In thought, I listened to the dull rumble of the sea, But soon sleep closed his tired eyes. And suddenly appeared to me, beautiful and bright, the Goddess that chose me as a prophet. A green myrtle crowned her brow with leaves, And the golden silk of curls fell over her shoulders. The holy fire of love warmed her eyes, And shed warmth and light on everything. Full of reverence, I lay motionless And waited for the sacred words, holding my breath. But then she leaned towards me and with her hand Touched lightly my sick chest. And finally her lips opened wide, And this is what I heard from her then: “Your chest languishes with suffering and anguish, And before you lies a long way. Can I tell you what awaits you in your homeland? Your people will raise stones at you For the fact that you accuse with a mighty word Slaves of sin, slaves of shameful vanity! For the fact that you will announce a terrible hour of vengeance to the One who is mired in the mire of evil and idleness! Whose heart was not embarrassed by the groan of the persecuted brothers, To whom the law of the fathers was the law! But don't be afraid of them! And know that I am with you, And the stones will fly over the proud head. If you are in chains, do not lose heart and believe, I myself will unlock the door of the gloomy dungeon. And again you will go, Levite chosen by me, And your voice will not sound in vain in the world. The grain of love will sink deep into the hearts; The time will come, and it will give a magnificent fruit. And the man of that time will not have long to wait, He will not long languish and suffer. The world will be resurrected to life... Look, the ray of truth is sparkling with clear-eyed flame from behind the clouds! Go, full of faith ... And on my chest You will soon rest from torment and sorrow. She said... And then she hid, And I woke up, excited, from sleep. And holy Truth, full of new powers, I vowed to serve it, as I had served it before. My fallen spirit has risen... And to the oppressed again I went to proclaim freedom and love...

A.N. Pleshcheev. Complete collection of poems. Poet's Library. Big series. Moscow, Leningrad: Soviet Writer, 1964.

old man at the piano

Whatever passes will be nice. Pushkin Remembrance is the only paradise from which we cannot be driven out; even our forefathers were not deprived of it. Jean-Paul Fille de la douleur, harmonie, harmonie! Langue que pour l "amour inventa le genie! Alfred de Musset ("Lucie") * Sounds pour into my soul like a harmonic wave: They speak with soul About the past, about antiquity. I remember: we sat at the piano With her in the evening; I remember the night at A fountain, A kiss in a thick garden... I remember a sad farewell In the fatal hour of parting; I remember oaths, promises, A look moistened with a tear. Everything is as it was now: She is already married - And she has not experienced love So long ago my soul. I am an old man Memories I was left alone: In the days of sorrow, in the days of suffering They are my consolation. And to the sounds of the piano How sometimes I forget, Night, a date at the fountain - Everything is alive in front of me. Sounds pour into my soul like a harmonic wave; They say with my soul Oh of the past, of old! * Daughter of suffering, harmony, harmony! A language that is an invention for love! Alfred Musset ("Lucy") (French).- Ed.

A.N. Pleshcheev. Complete collection of poems. Poet's Library. Big series. Moscow, Leningrad: Soviet Writer, 1964.

* * *

He suffered in his life a lot, a lot, But he did not ask for regret From his neighbors, just like from God, And he proudly endured evil. And there was a time - and he believed his doubts to others, But in vain ... the poor man did not hear a word of consolation from his brother! They told him: “You are young, The heat in the blood will cool down with years, Passionate dreams will disappear ... So it was exactly with us before!” But he innocently believed That those aspirations were not in vain, And he saw the law in the distance of the Sacred Truth. They told him reproachfully, That he did not love his native land; He considered the world his homeland And mankind - his family! And he passionately loved that family And for its future benefits Was ready to spend all the time Excess of young forces in labors. But he found limits everywhere for his beloved hopes In the country of blind slaves of legend, And he did not quench his thirst for deeds! And he died in a fruitless struggle, No one guessed him; No one recognized the impulses of a loving, noble soul ... Everyone considered it empty, And only regretted youth; When the cold corpse was buried, there was no sobbing over him. Above the fresh young man's grave Now the birches only rustle Yes, in the cloudy morning, the melancholy oriole's melancholy sound ...

Vsevolod Rozhdestvensky. Favorites. M., L.: Fiction, 1965.

Wanderer

Oh! quand viendra-t-il donc se jour que je revais, Tardif reparateur de tant de jours mauvais? Jamais, dit la raison... H. Moreau * Everything is quiet... Poplars above the sleeping waters Stand like ghosts, illuminated by the moon; The vault of heaven is dotted with trembling stars, fields and forests are immersed in a deep sleep; The air streams are full of night coolness, A fragrant breeze blew in my face... Already the shore has become visible... and my chest breathes with joy, - Quickly, rush me, oh my light shuttle. I see a light flickered between the bushes And a bright strip lies on the river; Are you waiting for the wanderer to come to you, with languor and tears, You, good friend, in your cozy corner? With a prayer, do you stand before the pure Madonna And your whisper is heard in the midnight silence; Or maybe you're tearing the leaves of a fragrant rose, Like Gretchen Faust, wondering about me. Hearing the lapping of the waves, with a young smile You will go out to meet your friend in a dark grotto, Where, leaning your head on my shoulder, You used to say to me: "The day will come, And it is near, when neither grief nor suffering Will be on earth!" - No, he is far away, child; And if you knew how many hopes, Beautiful and holy, I have since lost! Do you remember how you and I parted, How cheerful I was in spirit, how full of youthful strength! But the days of separation, like dreams, passed; I visited the fatherland and you again! So what? Tired of fruitless struggle Already my soul. The fire in the eyes went out; And my chest sank, tormented by melancholy, And the blood does not glow with a blush on the cheeks. I heard the cry of my neighbors, I saw their torment, I found the power of prejudice everywhere; And I got scared! And the gloomy spirit of doubt, Terrible spirit, visited me for the first time! My impotence oppresses me all the time; Already the coldness in my heart, I feel, has penetrated; And I'm in a hurry to you, I'm in a hurry, my beautiful friend, In your arms to forget even for a moment! The darkness of the night thickened over the sleeping waters, A fragrant breeze blew in my face. The vault of heaven is strewn with trembling stars, Quickly carry me to the shores, boat!

Wonderful Moment. Love lyrics of Russian poets. Moscow: Fiction, 1988.

clouds

Open, my friend, a window, The air is warm and fragrant, Not a single one sways On the white birch leaves. Open, my friend, the window And do not be afraid. A formidable cloud rushed by, Frightening us with you. But I see that you are following her with timid eyes; And a thunderstorm - it seems to you - This silence portends. Look! The sun flashed. In the pale pink rays The distance of the dumb fields drowns ... Drive away your childish fear; Look how pure and clear the Sun is in the summer sunset ... And tomorrow the serene Heaven promises us a day. But I know what kind of thought has settled on your forehead: You cannot forget the clouds That have sailed far away. And, involuntarily raising your sad eyes to the sky, You say to yourself: "A terrible thunderstorm will strike over someone! God grant that it does not overtake Poor wanderers - Poor wanderers wandering In the night without rest and sleep; It would not overtake those who left loved ones, homeland and home And went to a distant goal Unexplored way!

Flower

Above the desert, at midday sultry, Proudly and calmly, a light cloud floats. And in the desert, tormented by thirst And scorched by a burning ray, A flower sends a prayer to her: “Look, in the despondent steppe I bloom sick and frail, And without strength, and without beauty ... I bloom so bleakly: There is not a cool shadow here, No fresh dew, I am burning, languishing from the heat, And with a faded head I dryly crouched to the ground. Every day, with the hope of a secret, I kept waiting for you to fly to us for a moment, at least by chance; Here you come ... and I call with a prayer to you, and I know that you will bow to a prayer: That abundant rain will fall, And, shaking off the dusty cover, My sheets will come to life, And under the moisture of the sky clean, And luxurious and fragrant, Shines my outfit; And then, in the harsh steppe, For a long, long time to a new life I will remember the return ... ”But, proudly, implacably, A cloud swept past Over a drooping flower. Far away, over a compressed field, It was useless, whimsically It rained; And in the desert, tormented by thirst And scorched by a burning ray, The diseased flower withered... And it kept waiting, fading, - Another cloud would come... But there was no other.

A.N. Pleshcheev. Complete collection of poems. Poet's Library. Big series. Moscow, Leningrad: Soviet Writer, 1964.

Elegy (Yes, I love you...)

(To the motive of a French poet) Yes, I love you, lovely creature, Like a pale star in the evening clouds, Like the fragrance of roses, like the breath of a breeze, Like the sound of a sad song on slumbering waters; Like dreams I love, like sweet oblivion Under the whisper of reeds on the seashore - Without jealousy, without tears, without thirst for intoxication: My love for you is a dream of the past ... Do I look at you, past worries Come to my mind, Forgotten love And all that so long ridiculed by doubt, What is replaced by it, what will not return again. It is not given to me to carelessly enjoy as my lot: Before me lies a distant, mournful path; And I hasten, child, to stop admiring you, Although for a moment my soul can rest from sorrow.

Wonderful Moment. Love lyrics of Russian poets. Moscow: Fiction, 1988.

Biography

Alexei Nikolaevich Pleshcheev - Russian writer, poet, translator; literary and theater critic. In 1846, the very first collection of poems made Pleshcheev famous among the revolutionary youth; as a member of the circle Petrashevsky he was arrested in 1849 and some time later sent into exile, where he spent almost ten years in military service. Upon his return from exile, Pleshcheev continued his literary activity; having gone through years of poverty and deprivation, he became an authoritative writer, critic, publisher, and, at the end of his life, a philanthropist. Many of the poet's works (especially poems for children) have become textbooks and are considered classics. On verses Pleshcheeva the most famous Russian composers wrote more than a hundred romances.

Alexei Nikolaevich Pleshcheev was born in Kostroma on November 22 (December 4), 1825, into an impoverished noble family that belonged to the ancient Pleshcheev family (Saint Alexy of Moscow was among the poet's ancestors):101. The family honored literary traditions: there were several writers in the Pleshcheev family, including the famous writer S. I. Pleshcheev at the end of the 18th century.

The poet's father, Nikolai Sergeevich, served under the Olonets, Vologda and Arkhangelsk governors. A. N. Pleshcheev’s childhood passed in Nizhny Novgorod:9, where since 1827 his father served as a provincial forester. After the death of Nikolai Sergeevich Pleshcheev in 1832, his mother, Elena Alexandrovna (née Gorskina), was engaged in raising her son. Until the age of thirteen, the boy studied at home and received a good education, having mastered three languages; then, at the request of his mother, he entered the St. Petersburg school of guards ensigns, moving to St. Petersburg. Here, the future poet had to face the "stupefying and corrupting" atmosphere of the "Nikolaev militarism", which forever settled in his soul "the most sincere antipathy." Having lost interest in military service, Pleshcheev left the school of guards ensigns in 1843 (formally, having resigned "due to illness") and entered St. Petersburg University in the category of oriental languages. Pleshcheev's circle of acquaintances began to take shape here: the rector of the university P. A. Pletnev , A. A. Kraevsky , Maikovs, F. M. Dostoevsky, I. A. Goncharov, D. V. Grigorovich, M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin.

Have you seen poems in Sovremennik signed by A. P-v? I found out that this is our 1st year student, Pleshcheev. He shows talent. I called him to me and caressed him. He goes to the eastern branch, lives with his mother, whose only son he is ...: 9 In 1845, A. N. Pleshcheev, carried away by socialist ideas, met through the Beketov brothers with members of the circle of M. V. Butashevich-Petrashevsky.

At the beginning of 1846, Pleshcheev began to attend the literary and philosophical circle of the Beketov brothers (Alexey, Andrei and Nikolai), which included the poet A. N. Maikov, critic V. N. Maikov, doctor S. D. Yanovsky, D. V. Grigorovich and others. In the circle of the Beketov brothers, Pleshcheev met F. M. Dostoevsky, with whom he had a long-term friendship.

Pleshcheev, to whom Dostoevsky dedicated his novel White Nights, served as the prototype of the Dreamer in this work.

The circle of Petrashevsky included writers - F. M. Dostoevsky, N. A. Speshnev, S. F. Durov, A. V. Khanykov. These days N. Speshnev had a great influence on Pleshcheev, whom the poet later spoke of as a man of “strong will and an extremely honest character”:10.

The Petrashevites paid considerable attention to political poetry, discussing questions of its development on Fridays. It is known that at a dinner in honor of C. Fourier the translation of "Les fous" by Beranger, a work dedicated to the utopian socialists, was read. Pleshcheev not only took an active part in the discussions and creation of propaganda poems, but also delivered forbidden manuscripts to the circle members. Together with N. A. Mordvinov, he undertook the translation of the book of the ideologist of utopian socialism F.-R. de Lamenne"The Word of a Believer", which was supposed to be printed in an underground printing house.

In the summer of 1845, Pleshcheev left the university due to a cramped financial situation and dissatisfaction with the very process of education. After leaving the university, he devoted himself exclusively to literary activity, but he did not give up hope of completing his education, intending to prepare the entire university course and pass it as an external student: 9. At the same time, he did not interrupt contacts with the members of the circle; Petrashevites often met at his house; Pleshcheev was perceived by them as a "poet-fighter, his own André Chenier ».

Poems to the maiden and the moon are over forever. Another era is coming: doubt and endless torments of doubt are in progress, suffering from universal human questions, bitter lamentation at the shortcomings and disasters of mankind, at the disorder of society, complaints about the trifles of modern characters and the solemn recognition of their insignificance and impotence, imbued with lyrical pathos to the truth ... In that miserable the position in which our poetry has been since the death of Lermontov, Mr. Pleshcheev is undoubtedly our first poet at the present time ... He, as can be seen from his poems, took up the work of a poet by vocation, he strongly sympathizes with the issues of his time, suffers from all the ailments of the century, painfully tormented by the imperfections of society ... The poems and stories of A. Pleshcheev, who in these years was charged with faith in the coming kingdom of "human cosmopolitanism" (in the words of Maikov), were also published in Fatherland Notes (1847-1849).

“And for our brother - a man of the second half of the 40s - France is very close to my heart. Then it was not allowed to poke your nose into domestic politics - and we were brought up and developed on French culture, on the ideas of 48 years. You won’t exterminate us ... In many ways, of course, we had to be disappointed later - but we remained faithful to A. Pleshcheev - A. Chekhov, 1888.

Link

In the winter of 1848-1849, Pleshcheev arranged meetings of the Petrashevites at his home. F. M. Dostoevsky, M. M. Dostoevsky, S. F. Durov, A. I. Palm, N. A. Speshnev, A. P. Milyukov, N. A. Mombelli, N. Ya. Danilevsky(future conservative author of the work "Russia and Europe"), P. I. Lamansky. Pleshcheev belonged to the more moderate part of the Petrashevites. He was left indifferent by the speeches of other radical speakers who replaced the idea of a personal God with "truth in nature", who rejected the institution of family and marriage and professed republicanism. He was a stranger to extremes and sought to harmonize his thoughts and feelings. An ardent passion for new socialist beliefs was not accompanied by a decisive rejection of one's former faith and only merged the religion of socialism and the Christian doctrine of truth and love of one's neighbor into a single whole. No wonder he took the words of Lamenne as his epigraph to the poem “Dream”: “The earth is sad and dry, but it will turn green again. The breath of evil will not forever sweep over her like a scorching breath.

In 1849, while in Moscow (house number 44 on 3rd Meshchanskaya Street, now Shchepkina Street), Pleshcheev sent F. M. Dostoevsky a copy of the forbidden “Letter from Belinsky to Gogol”. The police intercepted the message. On April 8, on the denunciation of the provocateur P. D. Antonelli, the poet was arrested in Moscow, transferred to St. Petersburg under guard and spent eight months in the Peter and Paul Fortress. 21 people (out of 23 convicted) were sentenced to death; among them was Pleshcheev.

On December 22, together with the rest of the condemned Petrashevites, A. Pleshcheev was brought to the Semenovsky parade ground to a special civil execution scaffold. A staging followed, which was later described in detail by F. Dostoevsky in the novel The Idiot, after which the decree of Emperor Nicholas I was read out, according to which the death penalty was replaced by various terms of exile to hard labor or to prison companies:11. A. Pleshcheev was first sentenced to four years of hard labor, then transferred as a private to Uralsk in the Separate Orenburg Corps.

The situation changed for the better after the poet began to be patronized by the Governor-General Count V. A. Perovsky an old friend of his mother. Pleshcheev got access to books, became friends with the family of a lieutenant colonel (later a general) who was fond of art and literature. V. D. Dandeville(to whom he dedicated several poems of those years), with Polish exiles, who was exiled in the same regions by Taras Shevchenko, one of the creators of the literary mask of Kozma Prutkov A. M. Zhemchuzhnikov and revolutionary poet M. L. Mikhailov.

In the winter of 1850 in Uralsk, Pleshcheev met Sigismund Serakovsky and his circle; they met later, in the Ak-Mechet, where both served. In Serakovsky's circle, Pleshcheev again found himself in an atmosphere of intense discussion of the same socio-political issues that worried him in St. Petersburg. “One exile supported another. The highest happiness was being in the circle of his comrades. After the drill, friendly interviews were often held. Letters from home, news brought by newspapers, were the subject of endless discussion. Not one of them lost courage and hope for a return…”, - its member Br. Zalessky. Serakovsky's biographer specified that the circle discussed "issues related to the liberation of the peasants and the allocation of land to them, as well as the abolition of corporal punishment in the army."

In 1857, Pleshcheev married (the daughter of the caretaker of the Iletsk salt mine E. A. Rudneva): 12, and in May 1858 he and his wife went to St. Petersburg, receiving a four-month vacation “to both capitals” and the return of the rights of hereditary nobility.

Resumption of literary activity

In the late 1850s, A. Pleshcheev turned to prose, first to the short story genre, then published several stories, in particular, "Inheritance" and "Father and Daughter" (both - 1857), partly autobiographical "Budnev" (1858) , "Pashintsev" and "Two Careers" (both - 1859). The main target of Pleshcheev's satire as a prose writer was pseudo-liberal accusation and romantic epigonism, as well as the principles of "pure art" in literature (the story "Literary Evening"). Dobrolyubov wrote about the story “Pashintsev” (published in the “Russian Bulletin” 1859, Nos. 11 and 12): “The public element constantly penetrates them and this distinguishes them from the many colorless stories of the thirties and fifties ... In the history of each hero of Pleshcheev’s stories, you see how he is bound by his environment, as this little world weighs on him with its demands and relations - in a word, you see in the hero a social being, and not a solitary one.

"Moscow Bulletin"

1860s

Period of political activity

“Have you read Chicherin's lecture in Moskovskie Vedomosti? No matter how little you sympathize with the students, whose antics are indeed often childish, you must admit that one cannot but feel sorry for the poor youth, condemned to listen to such flabby nonsense, such shabby as soldier's trousers, commonplaces and empty doctrinaire phrases! Is this a living word of science and truth? And this lecture was applauded by associates of the venerable doctrinaire Babst, Ketcher, Shchepkin and Co. » In the reports of the secret police during these years, A. N. Pleshcheev still appeared as a “conspirator”; it was written that although Pleshcheev “behaves very secretively,” he is still “suspected of spreading ideas that disagree with the types of government”: 14. There were some grounds for such suspicion.

It is known that on July 3, 1863, a note was drawn up in the III Department, stating that the poet-translator F.N. Berg visited Pleshcheev at the dacha and saw leaflets and typographical font from him. “Fyodor Berg said that Pleshcheev ... is positively one of the leaders of the Land and Freedom society,” the note said. On July 11, 1863, a search was carried out at Pleshcheev's, which did not bring any results. In a letter to the manager of the 1st expedition of the III Department, F.F. Krantz, the poet was indignant about this, explaining the presence in the house of portraits of Herzen and Ogaryov, as well as several forbidden books, by literary interests. There is no exact data on Pleshcheev's participation in Land and Freedom. Many contemporaries believed that Pleshcheev not only belonged to a secret society, but also maintained an underground printing house, which, in particular, P. D. Boborykin wrote about. M. N. Sleptsova, in her memoirs “Navigators of the Coming Storm”, claimed that Pleshcheev was among the people who were members of “Land and Freedom” and personally knew her: “In the 60s he was in charge of a printing house in Moscow, where "Young Russia", and, moreover, participated in the "Russian Vedomosti", which had just begun at that time in Moscow, it seems, as a reviewer of foreign literature. He was a member of the Land and Freedom, which has long associated him with Sleptsov, ”she claimed. Indirectly, these statements are confirmed by the letters of Pleshcheev himself. So, on September 16, 1860, he wrote to F.V. Chizhov about his intention to “set up a printing house”. In a letter to Dostoevsky dated October 27, 1859, it was said: "I am starting a printing house myself - although not alone."

Literary activity in the 1860s

Literary earnings brought the poet a meager income, he led the existence of a "literary proletarian", as F. M. Dostoevsky called such people (including himself). But, as contemporaries noted, Pleshcheev behaved independently, remaining faithful to "the high humanistic Schillerian idealism learned in his youth":101. As Yu. Zobnin wrote, “Pleshcheev, with the courageous simplicity of an exiled prince, endured the constant need of these years, huddled with his large family in tiny apartments, but did not compromise either his civic or literary conscience one iota”:101.

Years of disappointment

In 1864, A. Pleshcheev was forced to enter the service and received the position of auditor of the control chamber of the Moscow post office. “Life has completely torn me apart. In my years, to fight like a fish on ice and wear a uniform for which I never prepared, how hard it is ”:14, he complained two years later in a letter to Nekrasov.

Pleshcheev in St. Petersburg

Pleshcheev actively supported young writers. He played a crucial role in the life of Ivan Surikov, who was a beggar and was ready to commit suicide; his life changed after the first publication arranged by Pleshcheev. Having great influence in editorial offices and publishing houses, Pleshcheev helped V. M. Garshin, A. Serafimovich, S. Ya. Nadson, A. Apukhtin. The most important role Pleshcheev played in the literary fate of D. S. Merezhkovsky during his literary debut. The latter, as a relic, he kept a short note in his archive: “I propose to the members of the society Semyon Yakovlevich Nadson (Krondstadt, the corner of Kozelskaya and Kronstadtskaya, the house of the Nikitin heirs, Grigoriev’s apartment) Dmitry Sergeevich Merezhkovsky (Znamenskaya, 33, apartment 9) A. Pleshcheev”: 99. A deep friendship connected Pleshcheev with the novice A.P. Chekhov, whom Pleshcheev considered the most promising of young writers. The poet greeted Chekhov's first major story, The Steppe, with admiration:17.

Creativity of the 1880s

Children's literature

Romances on poems by Pleshcheev

Findings of researchers

Numerous propaganda poems were created among the Petrashevites, but few of them have survived. Presumably, many of Pleshcheev's propaganda poems also disappeared. There is an assumption that some unsigned works that appeared in the emigrant collections of the Lute series may belong to Pleshcheev; among them is the poem "The Righteous", marked: "S. Petersburg. January 18, 1847."
The poem “By feelings, we are brothers with you ...” (1846) was attributed to K. F. Ryleev for a long time. Its belonging to Pleshcheev was established in 1954 by E. Bushkants, who found out that the addressee was V. A. Milyutin (1826-1855), a member of the Petrashevsky circle, an economist, whose work Belinsky and Chernyshevsky paid attention to.
The poem "Autumn has come, the flowers have dried up ...", attributed to Pleshcheev in all collections of children's poetry, but absent in all collections of his works, does not actually belong to Pleshcheev. As the literary critic M.N. Zolotonosov established, the author of this text is the inspector of the Moscow educational district Alexei Grigorievich Baranov (1844-1911), the compiler of the collection where this poem was first published.
The poem “I feel sorry for her ...” (“Give me your hand. I understand your sinister sadness ...”) was published with a dedication to D. A. Tolstoy, with whom the poet was friends in his youth. Tolstoy, however, subsequently acquired a reputation as a "reactionary" and even became the chief of the gendarme corps. In this regard, as it turned out later, A. A. Pleshcheev, the son of the poet, urged P. V. Bykov not to include the poem in the collection or delete the dedication.: 238
For a long time there were disputes about who could be addressed to the poem "S ... y" (1885), which began with the words: "Before you lies a wide new path ...". The most convincing was the version of S. A. Makashin, according to which Saltykov-Shchedrin was the addressee. In a magazine publication, it had the subtitle: "On entry into the field." Shchedrin was valued by Pleshcheev as “a really huge talent”, he was classified as one of the “best people in his country”:241.

Addresses

In Moscow: Nashchokinsky lane, 10 (the house has not been preserved); Trubnikovsky lane (on Prechistenka), 35; Arbat, 36; Malaya Dmitrovka, 22 (reconstructed); Gun lane, 3.
In St. Petersburg: 1872-1890 - the house of M. B. Bulatova - Bolshaya Spasskaya street, 1.