Chizhik-fawn, where have you been?
Chizhik-fawn, where have you been?
From an urban folk song, presumably born in St. Petersburg at the beginning of the 20th century. and having several text options. The most popular of them:
Chizhik-fawn, where have you been?
I drank vodka on the Fontanka.
I drank a glass, drank two -
There was a noise in my head.
Chizhik-fawn after drinking
Drank water from the Fontanka,
They pumped this bird out
Only in the Botkin hospital.
The expression is indirectly related to the siskin bird. In fact, we are talking about students of the St. Petersburg School of Law at the beginning of the 20th century. They, as was customary in educational institutions of pre-revolutionary Russia, were also assigned their own uniform, but in bright colors - green and yellow. For this reason, students from other metropolitan institutions teased future lawyers with “siskins,” since such colors are typical for the color of this bird. And to make the “tease” more daring, the law students were not only likened to birds, but also accused of being addicted to strong drinks.
In modern language, the song “Chizhik-Pyzhik” serves as a symbol of a primitive, unpretentious melody, which is usually played by people who are not familiar with musical notation and have virtually no command of the instrument.
Encyclopedic Dictionary of winged words and expressions. - M.: “Locked-Press”. Vadim Serov. 2003.
See what "Chizhik-fawn, where have you been?" in other dictionaries:
Monument to Chizhik Pyzhik Monument to Chizhik Pyzhik monument in St. Petersburg. Installed in 1994 on the Fontanka River next to the 1 m Engineering Bridge, opposite house No. 12/1. Not far from this place, in house number 6 on the Fontanka embankment, from 1835 to 1918 ... Wikipedia
Monument to Chizhik Pyzhik Monument to Chizhik Pyzhik monument in St. Petersburg. Installed in 1994 on the Fontanka River next to the 1 m Engineering Bridge, opposite house No. 12/1. Not far from this place, in house number 6 on the Fontanka embankment, from 1835 to 1918 ... Wikipedia
CHIZHIK-PYZHIK- Ironic nickname for a student at the Imperial School of Law (1835–1918) in St. Petersburg*. Students of this closed educational institution for children of nobles (see nobleman*) rarely appeared on the streets of the city, behaved importantly, usually without entering into ... Linguistic and regional dictionary
CHIZHIK-PYZHIK- XIX century This is how young, cocky students of the School of Law of a higher legal institution were called in St. Petersburg for their uniforms with shirtfronts of a bright yellow-green color. It was about them in St. Petersburg that they sang a funny song: Chizhik fawn... Petersburger's Dictionary
The request “Chizhik fawn” is redirected here. A separate article is needed on this topic... Wikipedia
There are no women in closed male educational institutions, but there is a period of puberty. And in a society of one hundred men, there will always be a couple of obvious homosexuals who will gladly involve anyone possible in this process. So there begin unnatural sexual games among themselves, in which the majority participate out of curiosity (although I never heard of anything like this in the Soviet Suvorov schools).
But today we are not talking about them, but about the Imperial School of Law - one of the most elite educational institutions of the Russian Empire, which was inaugurated 178 years ago, on December 5, 1835 in the presence of Emperor Nicholas I and heir Alexander. As in many closed male educational institutions, same-sex sexual traditions became especially widespread in this school.
Pupils of the School of Law in the dormitory (dormitory), 1911
But if for the majority of students at the School of Law homosexual preferences were only “experiences of adolescence,” then for those like Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and his brother Modest Tchaikovsky, they will remain for the rest of their lives.
But Modest’s twin brother, Anatoly Tchaikovsky, did not become homosexual after the School of Law.
Photo of the XX graduation of the School of Law. Of the thirty-two young people, only two tenderly hold each other's hands.
.
« And the “Guardians,” Zyukin, is a secret society that protects the honor of the dynasty and ancient Russian families from shame and reproach. Haven't you heard? The year before last they forced this... what's his name... composer... damn, I can't remember his last name. For screwing up NN<Эндлунг назвал имя одного из молоденьких великих князей, которое я тем более повторять не стану
>" (c) Boris Akunin “Coronation, or the Last of the Novels.”
This quote from Akunin is based on a real rumor that was circulating in Russia at one time that Tchaikovsky died of cholera for a reason, but committed suicide. Allegedly, the great Russian composer seduced some very noble boy, almost a member of the House of Romanov. Concerned about the possible damage to the reputation of their elite educational institution, graduates of the Imperial School of Law convened a “court of honor”, according to which the composer took his life by simulating cholera.
This rumor would later be refuted by historians for many reasons, not the least of which was that it was impossible to spoil the reputation of the School of Law with the homosexual adventures of one of its graduates - this educational institution had long been famous in St. Petersburg for its “gay” morals.
Lawyers are kicking a ball around in the school garden. Photo 1913-1914
Until 1832, homosexuality in the Russian Empire was a crime only for a short time under Peter I, and only for military personnel. With the adoption under Nicholas I of the Code of Laws of the Russian Empire, two articles punishing homosexuality were included in the “Code of Punishments”.
Sodomy itself (paragraph 995) was punishable by deprivation of all rights of estate and exile to Siberia for a period of 4 to 5 years. Committing sodomy with the use of violence or against minors or the weak-minded (paragraph 996) was punishable by deprivation of all rights and hard labor for a term of 10 to 12 years.
But according to the expression attributed to Saltykov-Shchedrin, “the severity of Russian laws is softened by the optionality of their implementation,” and these paragraphs in the Russian Empire were rarely tried on in judicial practice. For example, just in those years (1833-1849), the Minister of Public Education of the Russian Empire and the President of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences was Count Uvarov, whose homosexual affections were lively discussed in society. And Count Uvarov’s appointment of his lover, Prince Dondukov-Korsakov, to the post of vice-president of the academy was ridiculed by Pushkin in a famous epigram:
At the Academy of Sciences
Prince Dunduk is in session.
They say it's not appropriate
Dunduk is so honored;
Why is he sitting?
Because well..there is.
This minister and his lover enlightened future lawyers on how to handle the law.
Imperial School of Law (view from the Fontanka River and facade), photo from the 1900s.
And back in 1862, St. Petersburg was rocked by a scandal with the closure of the Shotana restaurant as a gathering place for secular pederasts, who formed a kind of club there with the participation of students of the School of Law (in common parlance, “legal scholars”).
Everyone who visited that club was disgraced throughout the city by the name “bugors” (from the corrupted French “bougre” - “sodomite, sodomite”), many houses closed their doors, acquaintances stopped bowing, and some of the disgraced jurists left the School out of shame and left St. Petersburg . But the majority remained, and no one drove them out of the Imperial School of Law.
And finally, about one misconception. At the instigation of Valentin Pikul (“I have the honor”), a story went around the world that the famous funny song “Chizhik-Pyzhik, where have you been?//Drank vodka on the Fontanka” owes its appearance to lawyers who secretly visited the tavern, which was located there (even, I remember, in “What? Where? When?” there was such a question).
Wikipedia says about this: “ The students of the school—in common parlance “lawyers”—wore a yellow-green uniform and a triangular hat, and in winter a fawn hat (which is why they received the nickname “chizhikov-fawns).”.
This is all untrue - no yellow-green uniform » jurists did not wear them; their uniform was a dark green (in common parlance “bottle”) color, with a light green cloth collar and cuffs. The buttons were gilded, with an eagle, and the overcoats were also dark “Nikolaev” with beaver collars.
A student of the Imperial Alexander Lyceum (left), a student of the Imperial School of Law (right).
And siskins from the family of finches, the order of passerines. Well they don't look alike at all
.
The color of the motley siskins, the “bottle” color of the uniform of lawyers, did not in any way resemble, especially since dark green was the uniform color for university students, and the uniforms of lyceum students and lawyers generally differed only in the color of the buttonholes and piping.
And the students of the School of Law never wore any “fawn hats” - both in winter and summer they were given a cocked hat without a plume and were allowed a cap (which, although not provided for by the Charter of the school, was allowed).
Lawyers in uniform in winter and summer. Future world chess champion A.A. Alekhine, photo 1913, and D.A. Levitsky, photo 1917
And the song about siskin-fawn was known at least 10 years before the opening of the Imperial School of Law. From the correspondence of Pushkin’s contemporaries, Izmailov - Yakovlev, November 16, 1825: “ A parody was made of the return of the first [Gnedich]: “Gnedich, Gnedich! where have you been? In the Caucasus, I washed it; washed once, washed twice, my head was refreshed" And this song spread to jurists, perhaps only because of their “f..ki.”
By the way, they say yesterday was Lawyer’s Day in Russia? Congratulations.
Chizhik-fawn, where have you been?
- I drank vodka on the Fontanka!
I drank a glass, drank two -
My head is spinning!
A couplet that is usually associated with students of the St. Petersburg School of Law, located on the Fontanka embankment, building 6. It was a closed educational institution for the children of nobles, founded in 1838 at the suggestion of the dignitary Mikhail Speransky, the author of the civil reforms of Alexander I.Chizhikamicalled the students of this school.
These students were not known for their good behavior.If the version is correct, then the verse appeared no earlier than 1838. Moreover, the first two lines are quoted in Dmitry Grigorovich’s story “Kapellmeister Suslikov,” written in 1848 and published in the same year in the 12th issue of Sovremennik.
Chizhik, chizhik, where have you been?
On the Fontanka I drank water... etc.
That is, in the 1840s the song was already popular.
Many cultural figures have graduated from the School of Law: composers Pyotr Tchaikovsky and Alexander Serov, literary and music critic Vladimir Stasov, poets Alexey Apukhtin, Alexey Zhemchuzhnikov and others.
Now, opposite the building of the former school, at the edge of the Fontanka water, there is a life-size monument to the little siskin. They throw coins at him for good luck. The monument is often stolen, but a new one is erected in its place.
Folklorist Vladimir Bakhtin doubted that the song was connected with students. He quoted ten lines of the song and drew parallels with an old village song about a bunny:
“Chizhik-fawn, where have you been?
I drank water on the Fontanka.
I drank a glass, drank two,
There was a noise in my head.
They began to catch the siskin,
To put him in a cage.
Chu, chu, chu, chu,
I'll fly out of the cage.
The little siskin didn’t want to go into the cage,
He took the air and flew away.
In the first years of the existence of St. Petersburg, as, indeed, in pre-Petrine times, Fontanka was called the Nameless Erik. Eriks, that is, river channels formed during a flood, were many small rivers flowing from one large river and flowing into it. Since 1737, the name "Fontanka" became official.
It must be said that the Fontanka remained one of the most beloved objects of urban folklore throughout the history of St. Petersburg.
Chizhik-fawn, where have you been? —
I drank vodka on the Fontanka.
I drank a glass, drank two,
There was a noise in my head.
The fate of one of the students of the School of Law who played the prank still excites urban folklore. True, now in connection with environmental problems:
Chizhik-fawn instead of drinking
I drank water from the Fontanka.
Apparently, the degrees are not the same:
There was a noise in my stomach.
Chizhik-fawn after drinking
I got a hangover from Fontanka.
They pumped this bird out
Only in the Botkin hospital.
And one of the proverbs contains the St. Petersburg formula of the eternal intellectual duality of soul, when St. Petersburg is dear to tears, and one would like to be carried away somewhere where the trees are more neatly trimmed and the lawns are less trampled, and St. Petersburg itself could be different, more comfortable and adapted for humans. In short: “I would like to live on the Fontanka, but... with a view of Manhattan.”
VARIANTS AND PARODIES
Chizhik, chizhik, where have you been?
- I drank vodka on the Fontanka.
I drank a glass, drank two -
There was a noise in my head.
They began to catch the siskin,
To put him in a cage.
- Chu, chu, I’ll fly away,
I don't want to live in a cage.
The words and music were written no later than 1917.
Boris Rubashkin sings like this:
- Chizhik, chizhik, where have you been?
- I drank vodka on the Fontanka!
I drank a glass, drank two -
It's noisy in my head!
Hey Katya, Katya! Hey Katerina!
Oh, what a ballerina you are!
When you go home -
You're laughing, yes, yes, at me!
Chizhik, chizhik, where have you been?
- I drank vodka on the Fontanka!
I drank a glass, drank two -
My head is spinning!
Hey, Chizhik, Chizhik, tell me, where have you been?
- I drank vodka on the Fontanka!
I drank a glass, drank two -
It's noisy in my head!
Chizhik-Pyzhik
- Chizhik-fawn, where have you been?
- I drank vodka on the Fontanka.
I drank a glass, drank two -
There was a noise in my head.
- I’m not vodka, I’m liqueur,
I love Katya-Katerina.
Katya, Katya, Katerina -
A picture has been drawn.
Katya embroidered the dress,
The officer was waiting.
- Young officer
Take me home!
My house is on the mountain
Three windows in the yard!..
- Chizhik-fawn, where have you been?
- I drank vodka on the Fontanka.
I drank a glass, drank three -
Don't take the fourth one!
One two three four,
I was taught to read and write,
Don't read, don't write,
Just count the money.
Siskin, siskin, siskin,
Village man
We fed you
We gave you something to drink
They put me on my feet,
They forced me to dance.
- Chizhik-fawn, where have you been?
- I drank vodka on the Fontanka.
I drank a glass, drank seven -
I became completely drunk!
Chizhik-fawn (parody)
- Chizhik-fawn, where have you been?
- I washed my ass on the Fontanka!
The wind blew - I fell -
Got my ass dirty again.
Chizhik-pyzhik (St. Petersburg, Russia) - description, history, location, reviews, photos and videos.
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Chizhik-fawn, where have you been?
I drank vodka on the Fontanka.
I drank a glass, drank two -
Dizzy in my head
funny song
The monument to Chizhik-Pyzhik was erected on the Fontanka near the water. St. Petersburg residents immediately fell in love with the little hero - a belief soon appeared in the city that if a small coin thrown to the bronze paws of a bird stayed on the small platform where the little siskin sat, the wish would come true. Probably, many would like their wishes to constantly come true...
Chizhik-Pyzhik is the smallest monument in St. Petersburg. Its height is 11 centimeters and its weight is 5 kilograms.
Chizhik-Pyzhik
Little Chizhik-Pyzhik has been kidnapped seven times to date. The monument became popular among tourists in a short time. Another tradition began to exist among newlyweds. The groom lowers a glass on a rope to the bird and carefully clinks glasses with its beak. This should definitely bring happiness in future family life.
In house No. 6 on the Fontanka embankment in 1835, His Highness Prince Peter Georgievich of Oldenburg, nephew of Emperor Nicholas I, opened the Imperial School of Law. His students were nicknamed Chizhik-Fawns because the students’ uniforms were green, and the buttonholes and cuffs were yellow, like the plumage of these birds, and they were called Pyzhiks because of their fawn hats. True, regarding the second part of the nickname “Pyzhik” there is an opinion that the students’ bearing was demonstrative - pompous and therefore they were called Pyzhik. In their free time, law students put on ordinary clothes and secretly visited a nearby tavern in the basement of the merchant Nefedov’s house (house no. 14). So a poem about legal students appeared.
Address: St. Petersburg, emb. R. Fontanka, Engineering Bridge.
We treat those who have left a mark on our lives in one way or another differently. It doesn't matter whether good or bad. You know: he seems to be a good person and has done a lot of good things, but there is one action that cancels everything out. Or, on the contrary, he did a lot of bad things, but the memories, no matter what, are good.
I remembered something about a song: “Chizhik-pizhik, where have you been? I drank vodka at the market...” On the topic of Chizhik. I also had one character like that. So, for a long time there were, in fact, many of my poems were dedicated to him... Hmmm. It was I who suddenly remembered my omnivorous nature. Well, it's not about me. He was there, drinking vodka and more. He treated the Zhoriks nearby... What could we do without it? The position is this: drink yourself and treat the people. Well, or help yourself if someone offers, or if there is a reason. By the way, the bosses have much more reasons than the common people. Yeah. And they, that is, the bosses, don’t get drunk so quickly only because they always have snacks. In theory, that's what the authorities are for.
What am I talking about? Oh, yes: on occasion, they let us know about the proposed rewarding of the best representatives of the team with a sum of money, a la a prize, on behalf of circles such as superiors. Yeah... Well, so, why not play democracy on this occasion? Everything is fine, but among the worthy candidates, in my personal opinion, Chizhik was also proposed... Wow. Lord, forgive me, but... I just imagined how many people would spit if they found out that they saw, if not Niagara Falls, then Karasevka during the spring flood.
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