The structure of the ear organ. What does the human ear consist of? Mechanism for distinguishing sound vibrations

The creativity of Valery Bryusov is multifaceted. Starting with the decadent movement of Symbolism, at the end of his relatively short life he came to other positions more in keeping with the era he witnessed. Symbolism adorned Russian poetry by touching the holy of holies of the human soul, revealing the secrets of deeply hidden feelings and momentary experiences. In the amazing poem of the early Bryusov “To a Woman” (1899), all the signs of symbolism that he declared in his literary programs and manifestos are visible. A woman is a mystery to him, like an unread book, a sealed scroll, in which incomprehensible words, thoughts, and crazy feelings are hidden. The image of a female deity is created using vocabulary corresponding to symbolism: “witch’s drink”, “scorching flame”, “star crown” - torture, vocabulary, service and prayer. As usual, in the depiction of instantaneous sensations, everything is confused: the secret witch and the secret divine. That’s the beauty of the woman’s mystery. And the phrase “You are a woman, and you are right”, which has become a textbook phrase, no longer seems like a favorite decadent delight, but a conclusion from real life experience.

Exploring the depths of his “I”, characteristic of symbolism, the young Bryusov discovers in himself a merging with nature, the joyful life of the city, the happiness of work (the poem “To Myself” - 1900). But, being true to the laws of symbolism, he imagines himself as a meandering river, a cheerful road, a free wave “in an endless expanse.” And in the end - quite decadently - the fear that his life is a “dream of existence” and the desire, even after death, to “be aware of his free self.” There is a noticeable echo with the ending of Lermontov’s poem “I Go Out Alone on the Road.” On his creative path, Bryusov experienced many changes, the tendency towards which was observed in the early stages. Being an ardent supporter of decadence, over the years he becomes close to Gorky, openly accepts the October Revolution, shows himself as an active builder of a new life and even becomes a communist, after which he works a lot in journalism, publishing and in various positions of the People's Commissariat for Education. There is something in common that connects all stages of Bryusov’s work: conviction in the incorruptible value of the human personality, spiritual conquests, faith in the power of man, in his ability to solve the most complex problems, reveal all secrets, overcome all difficulties and create a perfect world that would be worthy of human genius.

Bryusov was the first of the symbolists to sense the impending crisis of symbolism. He feels cramped in it, he feels almost like a mask, existing separately from the person. When Bryusov’s collection “Urbi et Orbi” (“To the City and the World”) was published in 1903, A. Blok, reviewing the book, came to the conclusion that the collection surpassed all previous Bryusov collections, and this is an important and significant literary fact that his decadence is behind him, and there is no turning back. Indeed, this book showed new facets of Bryusov’s creativity and revealed his new potential. It was here that the theme of joyful labor sounded in full force: “Work”, “Bricklayer”, “Prodigal Son”, etc. Revolutionary cataclysms could not help but affect Byusov’s work. This is what his poems “The Coming Huns”, “Under the Roars and Explosions”, “October 1917”, “Communars” and several collections are about: “Last Dreams”, “Moment”, “Dali”, etc. In the last years of his life Bryusov He works a lot on translations of Armenian poets; his book “Poetry of Armenia” is published in 1916. Until 1923, he creates the “Chronicle of the Historical Fates of the Armenian People.” In addition to poetic creativity, Bryusov devotes a lot of time to socio-political, journalistic and publishing activities.

In Moscow on December 1, 1873. In the house of the Kherodinovs on Milyutinsky Lane, a boy was born to Matryona Alexandrovna and Yakov Kuzmich Bryusov. He was ugly, with a big “pusher” head, but his mother’s first-born turned out to be “very pretty,” and they gave him a rare and elegant name - Valery.

The Bryusov family was a merchant family. Valery Yakovlevich's paternal grandfather, Kuzma Andreevich, a serf peasant, paid off his master in the 50s of the 19th century and, having received his freedom, took up trade. He sold cork. By the end of his life he became rich, leaving his son a stone house in Moscow, a shop and capital.

Bryusov's father was assigned to the case from childhood. From the parish sexton he learned the basics of literacy: he could write and count, but trade attracted little attention from Yakov Kuzmich. He gets closer to young people striving for self-education. Having abandoned the shop, Bryusov’s father sits down to read his books. Reads Darwin, Buckle, Marx, Russian literature and attends lectures at the Petrovsky Agricultural Academy. In the book “From My Life,” Valery Bryusov says about his father: “In the 70s, my father was close to N.A. Morozov, the future Shlisselburger, whose image I remember from the days of my early childhood. Portraits of Chernyshevsky constantly hung above my father’s table and Pisarev." After the death of Kuzma Andreevich, Bryusov’s father left the merchant rank and lived on the interest from the inheritance.

Based on the Bryusov family, one can get an idea of ​​the social differentiation of society:

a serf, as they said then, “makes his mark” and becomes a merchant;

the grandson of a cork dealer will receive an education and will essentially be an intellectual commoner.

According to the recollections of his relatives, Valery, or, as his family called him, Valya, grew up as a lively, inquisitive boy. His parents indulged him in every possible way, and he was quite spoiled. I learned to read early - at the age of four, from newspapers. Teachers and governesses were invited to the house for education. Parents were supporters of rational education: they protected him from fairy tales. Instead of toys, they bought models of steam engines and instruments for physical and electrical experiments. He had not yet learned to multiply, but he had already heard the name Darwin. “Needless to say,” writes Bryusov in his “Autobiography,” “there was no mention of religion in our house: like belief in brownies and mermaids.”

From a young age, Bryusov listened to conversations about “smart things” and read books of scientific content. He especially liked the essays on the biographies of great people: Kepler, Fulton, Livingston. The boy “imagined himself either as the inventor of an airship, or as an astronomer who discovered a new planet, or as a navigator who reached the North Pole.” While his peers were playing toy soldiers, ball or knucklebones, he spent hours poring over Brem and the zoological atlas.

From the age of eleven, Bryusov was sent to study at the private gymnasium of F.I. Kreiman, and immediately into the second grade. At first, his thin, stooped figure in a uniform blouse was completely lost in the crowd of schoolchildren. Newcomer Bryusov entered a class where, over the previous year, friendly relations had already developed and he, like a black crow, fell under a hail of ridicule and bullying. Bryusov had difficulty getting used to communicating with classmates and a constant class schedule. Over time, the schoolchildren realized that he knew a lot, and most importantly, he knew how to retell entire books well. He made friends.

Bryusov was captivated by the music of Verlaine’s verse, the poet’s breakthrough into new emotional spheres that the romantics had not reached.

In 1894-1895, Russian Symbolists were published in three editions. The compiler, publisher, and, to a greater extent, the author of them was V. Bryusov. He is twenty years old. He is a student at Moscow University: tall, slightly stooped from daily work at his desk. He is impetuous and angular in his movements. He has coarse black hair above his high forehead, a small goatee on his Mongolian cheekbones, and a mustache.

In "Russian Symbolists" Bryusov intended to give readers all possible examples of symbolic poetry. It was a search for new verse forms and at the same time an “expansion of artistic impressionability.”

The attacks of criticism and the rejection of readers did not bother Bryusov much: he understood that at first this was inevitable. His confidence in himself and in the correctness of his chosen path remained unshakable.

Everywhere: in university classrooms, in student circles, when it came to symbolism, Bryusov ardently defended its principles.

In the spring of 1899, Bryusov took his final exams at the university. Now nothing prevents him from doing what he loves, the work of his life. With pleasure, he parted with the student uniform, which had long embarrassed him.

In the fall of 1900, the Scorpion publishing house published V. Bryusov’s book, “The Third Watch.” “The Third Watch” begins with the poet’s confession: he heard a certain voice and returned from the desert to the people. In the world he found a wife and, it seems, found happiness. Willingness to sacrifice everything acquired in the name of a new dream. "The Third Watch" is a book of two plans. In the cycle “Favorites of the Ages,” the poet illuminates the past of humanity through the faces of various heroes.

Bryusov dreamed of XX century. It seemed to him that at the very change of centuries some spring of active life would open. A kind of insight will occur, and everyone will see a way out of the impasse that has created in modern society. And many were aware of the impasse and futility of the existing relationships between different layers of society. Class contradictions became more and more fierce. Yet XX The century began relatively calmly. Outwardly, life continued as before. "The Third Watch" introduced the poet into officially recognized literature. However, Bryusov as a poet, having outlived his former self in “The Third Watch,” is ready to again look for other ways of TV.

An indispensable member of the Scorpion publishing house, secretary of the Russian Archive magazine, correspondent for the London magazine Athenaeum, for which he writes annual reviews of Russian literature, Bryusov is active and self-confident. There is a noticeable shift in the poet’s consciousness: he is ready to “take up the hammer.” At the same time, it would be a mistake to see Bryusov as a conscious revolutionary. He is alienated from concrete actions by an often contemplative position. Probably his understanding of revolution is nothing more than destructive anarchy. But, rejecting the modern system, he is ready to take a step towards those who will erect barricades.

Bryusov likes the work in the “Russian Archive” of P. I. Bartenev. He gratefully accepts the archival research skills from the “patriarch of Russian journalism.” A passion for rare books and an interest in letters from long-dead people as evidence of his time answered his spiritual needs. The only person who could become his true friend,

Bryusov considered Ivan Konevsky (I.I. Oreus). In the circle of the first Russian Symbolists, they predicted a great future for him. Bryusov met Konevsky in St. Petersburg, at an evening with F. Sologub. Both the poems and the personality of Konevsky made a huge impression on Valery Yakovlevich. Konevsky was painfully shy and at the same time confident in his every word, he knew French poetry well at the end of the century and lived only by his intense spiritual quest.

In the summer of 1901, Konevsky vacationed on the Riga seaside. When leaving the hotel, he forgot to take his passport, which he realized on the train. Konevsky got off at the first stop to transfer to the oncoming train. It was a hot day, a river was flowing near the station, and he decided to swim. He could not know that Aa has a bad reputation among local residents due to strong undercurrents. Dragged into the whirlpool, the poet drowned. He was just under twenty-four years old. Bryusov perceived the news of the sudden death of I. Konevsky as a personal misfortune: evil fate deprived him of a likely friend, and an extraordinary talent for new literature was lost. Since the beginning of the century, Russian new art in all its manifestations (literature, painting, theater, music) has been increasingly strengthened. Petersburgers and Muscovites are trying to act as a united front, providing each other with pages of their publications. Bryusov enthusiastically compiles almanacs “Northern Flowers”, each issue of which can be considered as an anthology of new poetry. A second wave of symbolism rises, giving the names of Andrei Bely, Alexander Blok, Vyacheslav Ivanov.

In the summer of 1902, Bryusov writes in his “Diary”: “... Bugaev visited me, read his poems, talked about chemistry. He is perhaps the most interesting person in Russia. Maturity and decrepitude of mind with a strange youth. Here’s another one to take Konevsky’s place.” .

The life paths of Boris Bugaev (Andrei Bely) and Valery Bryusov crossed even earlier. Bugaev is also a student of the L.I. gymnasium. Polivanova. The scandalous fame of the decadent poet attracted everyone's attention to Bryusov. Following Bryusov, Bugaev extols symbolism in the last classes. Boris Bugaev did not expect to become a human at first. The son of a mathematics professor, he, according to family tradition, prepared for scientific work and studied natural sciences. But a dapper student in a green frock coat with white piping, a visitor to exhibitions and concerts, he inquisitively follows literature and appreciates Vladimir Solovyov and Bryusov. Watching in the laboratory how a substance crystallizes in a flask, twisting the wick in a burner, he thinks about cosmogony, about the “dense forest of symbols,” and that rhythm and melody can transform life.

Bugaev writes poetry and “symphonies” and, by the very definition of the new genre, emphasizes the priority of music in modern art. When the “Dramatic Symphony” was read at the Solovyovs’, those present unanimously decided that a new writer had been born. In order not to upset Professor Bugaev with the symbolic debut of his son, M.S. Solovyov comes up with a pseudonym for the author - Andrei Bely.

Bryusov followed with interest the rapid development of A. Bely’s artistic talent. He wrote to an old acquaintance: “My soul calms down when I think that he exists.”

Bryusov was a “teacher of taste” and a “teacher of poetry” for the aspiring writer A. Bely, with whom he developed a relationship at the beginning of friendship and love, then zealous hatred that almost led to a duel, and subsequently mutual understanding.

Upon returning to his homeland, from a trip to Italy, Bryusov, enriched with new impressions and new thoughts, wrote a theoretical treatise “The Keys of Secrets” about the essence of art. This work did not go beyond aesthetic boundaries. The author considered the problem in isolation from issues of public life and expressed a moderate symbolist understanding:

art is not limited to “usefulness”;

art cannot only be “pure”;

science does not explain art.

In the form of a lecture, Bryusov read “The Keys of Secrets” in the auditorium of the historical museum. Literary circles regarded it as proof of the freedom of modern art. And a month later the lecture was repeated by the author for a Russian circle in Paris. The main thing that Paris gave Bryusov was a meeting with Vyacheslav Ivanov. He introduces himself after his lecture on the religion of Dionysus. Shortly before this acquaintance, Ivanov’s first book, “Helmsmen of the Stars,” was published. Bryusov responded to its release with a review, where he admitted that “Vyacheslav Ivanov is a real artist who understands the modern tasks of poetry and is working on them.” Bryusov and Ivanov had many things in common. First of all, a deep interest in the past of humanity, in history. Both were possessed by the pathos of a high creative spirit, both were superbly armed with philological culture.

In 1903 Bryusov publishes a book of poems “Urbi et orbi” (“To the City and the World”). This book belongs, without a doubt, to the heights of Bryusov’s creativity. It includes poems written over the past three years. In terms of the breadth of thoughts, the channel of passions, the variety of verse meters, which nevertheless constituted a strictly “architectural unity,” the book put V. Bryusov among the largest poets of his time.

Considering the language of poetry to be “the most perfect form of speech,” Bryusov demonstrates mastery in the most diverse layers of human existence. Enormous erudition and powerful imagination expand the possibilities of creatively living in the images of mythology, in utopian insights, in the nakedness of the “I” that comes into contact with the realities of reality.

The “Introduction” cycle testifies to the poet’s changed attitude towards modernity. Looking back at his past quests and crossroads (“The Seeker”, “The Thread of Ariad”, “The Prodigal Son”), Bryusov firmly believes from now on that only creative work and the truth of the earth are the true principles of life (“By the Earth”, “In Response”) .

Thanks to Bryusov, the Scorpion publishing house publishes books one after another that can be called the pinnacle of Russian symbolism. Bryusov’s discerning taste, ability to attract a talented author, interest him, and select the best that he is rich in cannot be ignored. Valery Yakovlevich knew how to talk to this or that poet, what to promise him. From the beginning of the century, symbolism not only grew into Russian literature, but in the field of poetry with the “Scorpio” brand on books of poetry it became the most significant phenomenon.

Bryusov closely followed the progress of military operations during the Russo-Japanese War. The poet saw Russia's access to the Pacific Ocean as a historical step worthy of Peter. The war became a test of the Russian forces of capitalism on the world stage. Bryusov wrote:

The fatal bowls swayed,

In the light of lightning are raised:

There are the enemy's and ours' lots,

Banners of difficult wars.

Be silent and lower your arrogant mind!

It's time for the highest truth!

Bryusov's public position during the years of the first revolution on many issues remained problematic. An artist of a certain era, his creativity and life are connected with it by all roots. Even when his heart responds to the elements of rebellion, Bryusov is still unable to break at once with everything that is dear and hated.

Contradictions and misconceptions were not overcome by Bryusov, but the poet’s desire for objectivism contributed to the creation of poems - monuments of the first Russian revolution. The moment of civic insight was captured by him in the poem “To the Happy.” It is addressed to the people of the future. The poet writes mournfully about himself and today’s generations:

And we will lie down for centuries like humus,

We are all who seek, believe, breathe passionately,

And this hymn, sung by me in the past,

I know the world to come will not hear.

But even feeling doomed, the poet proclaims: “It is a proud delight to breathe the future.”

The fifth book of poems by V. Bryusov, “Stethanos” (“Wreath”), was published when the December uprising broke out in Moscow. The book “Wreath” has a dedication: “To Vyacheslav Ivanov, poet, thinker, friend.” In a poetic address, Bryusov praises Ivanov for drawing attention to the poetry of the ancient Greeks.

Bryusov’s poetic chronicle of the events of 1904-1905 allows us to judge the change in the poet’s civic sentiments: from the official-patriotic appeal “To fellow citizens” to the sobering discovery of the possibilities of other perspectives in the development of events (“Julius Caesar”, “Street rally”, “The Face of Medusa” ). Bryusov made a political turn in the poem “The Coming Huns”:

Where are you, future Huns,

What a cloud hanging over the world!

I hear your cast iron tramp

Through the not yet discovered pamirs.

The poet imagined revolutionaries as Huns, that is, barbarians and destroyers of the old culture. The book “Wreath” concludes with a true masterpiece of urban poetry - “The Horse of Troubles.” Contrary to expectations, “Wreath” quickly sold out and gained strong popularity among readers.

For a long time Bryusov had been hatching the idea of ​​a novel from the life of Germany during the Reformation. The turning point era of the struggle of free humanistic thought with feudal-Catholic and burgher power attracted the poet for many reasons. The love triangle (Rupecht - Renata - Count Heinrich) in the novel “Fire Angel” was based on the personal relationships of Bryusov, Nina Petrovskaya and Bely.

Nina Ivanovna Petrovskaya at that time was the wife of the owner of the Graf publishing house S.L. Sopolova (pseudonym Krechetov). She wrote stories, reviews, feuilletons. Her life was tragic. She did not find happiness in marriage, was tormented by her uselessness, and searched for the meaning of existence according to various decadent recipes.

Bely gravitated toward life-creative feats, toward “theurgy.” In any event he was ready to see a “sign” and the beginning of a “mystery.” (Bely considered the wedding of Blok and Lyubov Dmitrievna Mendeleeva to be such a worldwide act). Bryusov knew about the relationship between Bely and Petrovskaya and allowed himself jokes about the “countess” and the “angel-like Andrei.” A conflict was brewing between Bryusov and Bely.

Bryusov challenges Bely to a duel. It is clear to White: there is no reason for a duel, the reason is artificial, and he writes an explanatory letter. As a result, the duel did not take place.

In his declining days, Bryusov wrote: “I saw most of the outstanding people of my time and with special love I remember the friendship that E. Verhaerne honored me with.”

The French-speaking Belgian poet Emile Verhaerne (1855-1916) reflected in his work the profound socio-economic changes that took place at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries throughout Europe. He began as the author of the book “Flemish Paintings” (1883), poems that inherited the cheerful colors of the Dutch masters of the 17th century.

Bryusov followed the evolution of the Belgian poet’s work. The path taken by Verhaeren in poetry was indicative for Bryusov. Having experienced symbolism internally, he was looking for a way out of the created impasse, and the Belgian poet gave him a worthy example. The book “Emil Verhaerne: poems about modernity. Translated by V. Bryusov” was published by the Scorpion publishing house in the summer of the same year. The very choice of title for the book speaks volumes about the goal set by the translator. The works of the Belgian poet seemed to the Russian reader to be a direct reflection of recent events. Undoubtedly, Bryusov fulfilled his promise to Verhaeren and conveyed to the Russian reader not only the thematic focus of his work, but also artistic features: free verse and oratorical gesture.

Bryusov’s review of N. Vashkevich’s book “On the Merger of Art” is indicative. Bryusov exposes the vulgarizing essence of the named work, which poorly and illiterately repeats the “dream of Vyacheslav Ivanov.”

Bryusov's views as an art theorist were clearly reflected in his attitude to the theater. Based on the position that theater has always been an artificial form of action, Bryusov did not see any benefit in bringing it closer to real-life verisimilitude. Theater visitors still know where they came, Bryusov reasoned sensibly, and no external effects will deceive them. Bryusov's attacks on the artistic theater had a far-reaching goal: realistic theater, he argued, should be replaced by symbolic theater. Bryusov then took the theory of symbolist drama from the Belgian poet Maurice Materlinck, who was also a very prolific playwright. With his creativity, Materlinck proved that mind and soul are incompatible. On March 26, 1907, at the Historical Museum, Bryusov gave a lecture “Theater of the Future.” In symbolic works, the speaker emphasized, two main elements can be observed: an abstract idea and an artistic creation. Bryusov’s attitude towards the role of an actor in the play changed accordingly. The actor must obey the author's text, the actor is the material of the performance. In essence, Bryusov rejected in this lecture the techniques of puppet staging in a play, resurrecting the ancient traditions of theater formed by Aristotle.

Long before the World War (1915), while simultaneously working on the book “Mirror of Shadows,” Bryusov conceived a collection of poems, the semantic core of which would be “an invincible, invincible call to life.” The collection was close to completion when the poet interrupted his literary work and went to the front as a correspondent. Now, having included military poems and some new ones in the manuscript, Bryusov compiled a book, giving it the title “Seven Colors of the Rainbow,” which included poems from 1912-1915.

The book went on sale in May 1916. Bryusov’s poetry, as it appears on the pages of the book “Seven Colors of the Rainbow,” has undergone significant changes compared to the poet’s previous collections. It was as if she had descended from the transcendental heights of heroism, became more balanced and acquired earthly features and details. The new book contains many poetic miniatures about simple and everyday things: “On a sled”, “On skis”, “A simple song”, “Girl with a doll”, “Girl with flowers”, “Quartet”, “Two heads”, “Portrait of a Woman” " The world of Bryusov's new book is material. He is inscribed in nature. These are poems about the sea, “Spring”, “Wretched Flowers”, “Mole”, “Autumn Fog”, “Dry Leaves”, “Rain and Sun”. The poem “To the Singer of the Word” is interesting, where Bryusov considers the image of Yaroslavna as the source of all the “faces” of subsequent Russian heroines. Among the urban poems in this book, poems about the northern capital and its founder stand out:

Stopped in a swamp swamp

The horse gallops furiously,

He turned his face to Europe

Rus' that looked to the East.

The most significant creations of Bryusov in the book “Seven Colors of the Rainbow”, without a doubt, include poems whose themes are related to science: “Son of the Earth”, “Children’s Hopes”.

For Bryusov, futurism is primarily associated with the name of Igor Severyanin, who coined this term. Bryusov considered Severyanin’s first book, “The Thundering Cup” (1913), an event in literature. However, the publication of further books by I. Severyanin shook Bryusov’s opinion about the poet. Bryusov did not destroy his fellow writer: in the article “Igor Severyanin” he calmly reflected on the phenomenon of poetry that bears his name. It is also significant that Bryusov singled out Severyanin from the futurists, believing that he had gone through the school stage.

In his translations, Bryusov preserved the individual characteristics of each author: their thoughts, shades of feelings, the sound of the verse. In such programmatic poems for Hovhannes Tumanyan as “Armenian Grief” and “Lamp of the Enlightener”. Bryusov conveyed the poet’s deep sorrow and hope for a better future for the people. Avetik Isahakyan is presented in Bryusov’s translations as a subtle lyricist who created beautiful images of the Eastern worldview.

Soon Bryusov received an invitation from the Baku Council of the Society of Lovers of Armenian Literature to visit a number of cities in Transcaucasia and give lectures. The poet accepts the invitation: he wants to see Armenia with his own eyes and wants to acquaint the Armenian public with the fruits of his labor.

The trip gave Bryusov many impressions. He was greeted enthusiastically. Bryusov makes acquaintances with many famous figures of Armenian culture and, first of all, with Hovhannes Tumanyan.

Bryusov's poems about Armenia can be conditionally divided into two categories. First: historical and journalistic poems; they are full of hope for the final victory of the Armenian people in the fight against their adversities. Second: poems with a premonition of a meeting with the country and a colorful description of the places where the poet managed to visit.

In August 1916, the collection “Poetry of Armenia” went on sale. Reviews for it were unanimous.

Due to wartime conditions, Bryusov cannot publish a new book, “The Ninth Stone,” poems from 1915 to 1917. The publishing house “Sirin” was liquidated and thus the publication of the complete works of V.Ya. was interrupted. Bryusova. Only eight scattered volumes were published from the collected works.

In the poet’s office there is a growing number of folders with ready-made materials that currently have nowhere to be printed. Only Maxim Gorky in a few months will publish from issue to issue in his “chronicle” the research “Teachers of Teachers”. In his lectures on literature, Bryusov gave pride of place to Pushkin.

Predecessors - Lomonosov, Batyushkov, Zhukovsky were considered in their direct influence on Pushkin and in his relation to their work. Bryusov spoke about Pushkin as if he knew the poet personally and was present when his works were written.

In 1921, on the initiative of Bryusov, the Higher Literary and Art Institute (VLHI) was created. It was a creative university, a living, active school that helped a naturally gifted person to open up and find himself.

In December 1923, the public celebrated Bryusov's fiftieth anniversary. From the People's Commissariat for Education the poet was congratulated by A.V. Lunacharsky. On behalf of the government P.G. Smidovich read and presented the poet with a certificate of honor from the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the RSFSR. Bryusov was also awarded the title of People's Poet of Armenia.

At the insistence of his wife Ioanna Matveevna, in the summer of 1924 Bryusov took a two-month vacation. Continuous, titanic work over a number of years weakened the poet’s already naturally not very strong organism. Together with his eight-year-old nephew Kolya Bryusov for a holiday in Crimea. We stopped in Alupka, memorable for the first happy days of our youth spent together here. On the slope of a green mountain stood the familiar large house of Count Vorontsov, the main attraction of these places, built in the style of an English castle with a wide grand staircase facing the sea, on both sides of which lay large marble lions. Adjacent to the house was a wonderful park with ponds, chaotic rock formations and secluded paths between exotic trees and bushes. Bryusov feels better here than in Moscow.

They returned to Moscow separately. Ioanna Matveevna and Kolya left immediately, and Bryusov stopped by in Koktebel to see Voloshin. It was time for the grape harvest. Guests gathered in the house of Maximilian Alexandrovich: writers, poets, musicians, old friends of the owner. We celebrated his birthday. They organized a humorous carnival with dressing up and live paintings. Bryusov read a poem specially written for this occasion, “To Maximilian Voloshin,” half serious, half ironic.

Clear sunny days flew by unnoticed. Voloshin's guests behaved at ease. Andrei Bely played ball with the youth. Poetry competitions were organized. One day we went to the mountains. The group was led by Voloshin in his uniform knee-length hitop. From time to time he turned to those walking behind him and drew attention to any feature in the area. They were caught in a thunderstorm in the mountains. It began to rain heavily. Bryusov threw his jacket over the woman’s shoulders. Soon everyone was soaked to the skin. Upon returning to the house, Bryusov felt unwell: he had a fever and his cough intensified. Someone miraculously got hold of aspirin. Valery Bryusov had difficulty writing a letter to Ioanna Matveevna in Moscow.

In Moscow, not fully recovered, Bryusov went into everyday affairs and responsibilities. The first graduation of students was coming at VLHI, and Bryusov the rector attached great importance to this event. He inspects the work of teachers and consults with them. In October he fell ill again. Doctors made a diagnosis: lobar and creeping pneumonia, complicated by pleurisy. When the temperature was brought down, Valery Yakovlevich asked Ioanna Matveevna, who did not leave his side, to read Plato and the latest journals aloud to him. Lying down, he tries to write a review of Bezymensky’s book. But the disease progresses, and the poet’s strength leaves him. Despite the pain, consciousness does not leave him for a long time. He understands what is happening, and several times he says: “The end!” On October 8th, he took his wife by the hand and with difficulty said a few comforting words to her. After a painful pause, he slowly said: “My poems...” - he lost consciousness. Ioanna Matveevna understood: “Save it.” The night passed anxiously: the patient was tossing about and suffering greatly. At ten o'clock in the morning Valery Yakovlevich Bryusov died.

More than half a century ago, Bryusov wrote: “If I had a hundred lives, they would not satisfy all the thirst for knowledge that burns me.” But what Bryusov did would have been enough for several lives.

Literature

Bryusov poet

• 1. Shapovalov M.A. "Valery Bryusov" (1992)
• 2. Ellis. Journal “Aquarius”: “Russian Symbolists” (1998)
• 3. Khodasevich V. Zhurn. "Silver Age. Memoirs". (1990)
• 4. Glazkov M. “Moscow Journal” (1998)

Composition

Valery Yakovlevich Bryusov at the beginning of the twentieth century became the leader of Russian symbolism. He was a poet, prose writer, literary critic, scientist, encyclopedic educated person, and helped many young poets enter literature.
At the beginning of his work, Bryusov published collections of poems “Russian Symbolists”. In the collections “Masterpieces”, “This Is Me”, “The Third Watch”, “To the City and the World” he admired the poetry of the French symbolists. Bryusov was interested in the cultures of other peoples, history, and antiquity. He could create a wide variety of images, move through time and space with the power of imagination, travel through countries and eras. Foreign critics were surprised that the Russian poet wrote so accurately about their countries and heroes. His fifth collection of poetry, “Wreath,” brought great fame to the poet.
Although Bryusov was considered the recognized leader of symbolism, only his early poems were purely symbolist. For example, the poem “Creativity”:

Purple hands
On the enamel wall
Half-asleeply draw sounds
In a ringing silence.

The poem “To the Young Poet” was also very popular:

A pale young man with a burning gaze,
Now I give you three covenants.
First accept: don’t live in the present,
Only the future is the domain of the poet.

Already in the early poem “The Rejected Hero,” symbolic images reflect ideas that are important to the author. The poet focuses on “painting with words”; his poem is clearly organized and balanced. To achieve his goal, Bryusov often used the technique of directly addressing the reader, talking with him:

There's midnight moisture in the silver dust
Captivates tired dreams with rest,
And in the unsteady silence of the river sarcophagus
The rejected hero does not hear slander.
Don't curse people! Trembling and groaning will come
Once again they will be sincere, prayers will be fervent,
The bright day will be confused - and the solar corona
The sacred rays will shine in the semi-darkness!

The romantic poem “Dagger,” following the classics of the 19th century, continues the theme of the poet and poetry. In Bryusov’s poem we see the author’s understanding of the tasks that life and society pose for the poet. The text is a poetic monologue addressed to the listener. The lyrical hero - the poet - is ready to fight fiercely against the pettiness, vanity and evil that reigns in the world:

It is torn from its sheath and shines in your eyes,
Just like in the old days, polished and sharp.
The poet is always with people when there is a thunderstorm,
And the song with the storm is forever sisters.

The poet is alone in his struggle, he does not hide difficulties, moments of disappointment: changing the world for the better is very difficult:

When I saw neither audacity nor strength,
When everyone under the yoke bowed their necks in silence,
I went to the land of silence and graves,
In centuries mysteriously past.

Bryusov is convinced: the poet is a singer of freedom. He must always be at the forefront of the fight. He cannot betray his ideal; it is from him that the call to the oppressed slaves comes. The poet firmly believes in the triumph of the ideas of freedom, he is happy to serve people:

The Dagger of Poetry! Bloody lightning light,
As before I ran along this faithful steel.
And again I’m with people - because I’m a poet,
Then the lightning flashed.

The romantic mood in Bryusov’s poems, however, quickly gave way to sober reasoning and earthly themes. Bryusov, brought up on the books of Darwin and democratic revolutionaries, was the first to see and predict the onset of a cruel industrial age. Hence his rejection of the city:

You bend the slaves' sullen backs,
So that, frantic and light,
Rotary machines
They forged sharp blades.

Bryusov was an innovator in poetry. He increasingly becomes an artist of drawing, painting, visual rather than musical image; in poetry he is guided by “measure, number, drawing.” These are his poems “Medea”, “Achilles at the Altar”, “Odysseus”, “Daedalus and Icarus”.
There are two poems with the title “Work” in Bryusov’s work: one from 1901, the other from 1917. "Work" (1901) consists of six stanzas. The poet glorifies physical labor as the basis of human life. The first two stanzas praise work, they contain many verbs and exclamatory sentences. This conveys the dynamics of action, the energy of joy when performing necessary, useful actions:

Hello, hard work,
Plow, shovel and pickaxe!
Drops of sweat refresh
My hand aches sweetly!

Everyone knows that working with a plow, shovel or pick is hard, exhausting, and that the final result is fatigue and negative emotions. Bryusov does not deny this. Yes, the work is hard, but it brings joy, something new appears that you did yourself. Therefore, the author selects definitions that, at first glance, are incompatible with the word “work.” His “drops of sweat” are “refreshing,” his hand “aches sweetly.” Bryusov's poem was perceived as fresh and new, since it revealed an opposite attitude towards work. There is no doubt that joyful work will bring more significant results than forced labor with groans and curses.
The lyrical hero lists his life goals:

I want to know the secrets
Life wise and simple.
All paths are extraordinary
The path of labor is like a different path.

A young man whose life is just beginning can speak so joyfully about work.
The poem “Work” (1917) is the work of a mature author, a person with established views. In it the poet clearly formulates:

The only happiness is work...

Here the poet does not single out only physical labor; for him, work “in the fields, at the machine, at the table...” is equally important. Each stanza is an energetic appeal to the reader - worker, grain grower, writer - with a call to work hard:

Ile - bent over a white page, -
Write what your heart dictates;
Let the sky light up with morning glory, -
Take them out in a line all night
Treasured thoughts of the soul!

The final lines of the poem have become well known due to the high meaning concentrated in them:

Work until you sweat hot
Work without extra bills,
All the happiness of the earth comes from work!

Admiration for man as a thinking being capable of changing the world is expressed in the poem “Praise to Man.”
Bryusov was keen on the ideas of scientific and technological progress, welcomed the active creative activity of mankind, and even dreamed of future flights into space. The poet creates a collective image of a Creator Man, capable of changing the surrounding space for the better:

Young sailor of the universe,
Mira the ancient woodcutter,
Steady, unchanging,
Be glorified, Man!

The poet traces the history of mankind from primitive times, lists the achievements of people's creative thought, starting with the invention of the ax and ending with electricity and railways:

Forever powerful, forever young,
In the countries of Darkness and Ice,
The prophetic hammer made me sing,
Filled the city with glitter.

The king is hungry and stubborn
Four sublunary kingdoms,
Without shame, you dig holes,
You multiply thousands of deceits, -
But, brave, with the elements
Then you beat your chest,
So that even above the new neck
The noose of slavery will be overcome.

At the same time, the poet puts in first place the impulse to overcome ignorance, asserts that only in this direction can a person develop. Everything new and progressive, as a rule, is created by the best representatives of the human tribe, capable of breaking outdated stereotypes. That is why Bryusov begins and ends the poem with the exclamation:

Be glorified, Man!

The historical theme is clearly manifested in the poem “The Coming Huns.” Bryusov was an expert on world history, the poet foresaw the beginning of revolutions in the country. Tsarism has completely exhausted itself. No one clearly imagined the future, but Russia could no longer live as before. Among the intelligentsia there was a feeling of guilt before the huge masses of the people who had been in slavery and humiliation for centuries. It is no coincidence that the author justifies any actions of the future “Huns” and relieves them of responsibility for the tragic consequences of their actions:

You are innocent of everything, like children!

The poet is aware that the “Huns” do not need culture, and therefore he internally agrees to any sacrifice:

And we, sages and poets,
Keepers of secrets and faith,
Let's take away the lit lights
In catacombs, in deserts, in caves.

In 1904, Bryusov and his like-minded people could hardly imagine the real scale of bloodshed in the event of revolution and civil war, but the poet foresaw the historical pattern of changing eras and reflected correctly. In our time, the poem sounds like a warning against the danger for modern culture of becoming a victim of the new “Huns” before the increase in lack of spirituality.
Thematically, the poem “Close Ones” is adjacent to the previous one. Having witnessed the revolution of 1905, Bryusov firmly states in the first line:

No, I'm not yours! Your goals are alien to me,
I find your uninspired cry strange...

But during the uprising, the poet agrees to join the masses of people who need a bright leader. The following lines of Bryusov’s poem are about the role of the ideological leader of the masses:

Where are you - a thunderstorm, a destructive element,
I am your voice, I am drunk with your intoxication,
I call to destroy the centuries-old foundations,
Create space for future seeds.
Where are you - like Rock, who knows no mercy,
I am your trumpeter, I am your standard bearer,
I call for an attack, to take obstacles from battle,
To the holy land, to freedom of life!

The final line of the poem makes it abundantly clear that the poet’s goal—destructive, not creative—is:

Break - I will be with you! build - no!

Bryusov remained in Russia until the end of his life, founded the Institute of Literature and Art in 1920, saved a large number of cultural monuments from destruction and barbaric plunder, and made a huge contribution to the development of Russian poetry. For his amazing performance, M. Tsvetaeva called him a “hero of labor.”