Born December 9, according to other sources, December 6 (18), 1848 in a family of serfs in the village of Nizovka, Tver province. He studied at school for two incomplete winters, then his mother sent him to work in St. Petersburg.
Next years of life Drozhzhina passed in wanderings in Russia, he changed many professions.
In St. Petersburg (1860-1871) he was engaged in self-education, got acquainted with the works of Leo Tolstoy and others.
At the age of 16, Drozhzhin wrote his first poem, in 1867 he began to keep a diary, which he kept until the end of his life.
The first publication of Drozhzhin in the magazine "Literacy" (1873). Since that time, Drozhzhin has become an active contributor to many magazines: Delo, Slovo, Family Evenings, and others, including those from Tver - Tver Vestnik (1878-1882).
Due to the poor financial situation and under the influence of meetings with Leo Tolstoy (1892, 1897), he returned to his homeland (1896), devoting himself to literary work.
After the filling of the Ivankovsky reservoir, his ashes and the last house in 1937 were transferred to the settlement. Novozavidovsky, where a museum is opened (more than 2 thousand items).
By the end of the 19th century, he became the most famous Russian peasant poet, in Nizovka in the summer of 1900 he was visited by Rainer Maria Rilke.
In the first decade of the XX century. one after another the books of the poet came out, Drozhzhin was elected an honorary member of the Society of Russian Literature Lovers (1905), received several literary prizes. The poems of this period are characterized by a description of rural life that combines both beauty and sadness (at the same time, unlike many city poets, Drozhzhin does not touch on the revolutionary events of 1905-1907; a vivid example is a poem dedicated to Apollo of Corinth, who also wrote rural poetry) .
Drozhzhin met the October coup in Nizovka, soon left it, taking up public work. He was elected chairman of the congress of proletarian writers of the Tver province (1919), an honorary member of the All-Russian Union of Poets (1923).
Drozhzhin's early poetry experienced a variety of influences. Many poems of the pre-October period were very popular among the people, became songs, were recorded for gramophones, penetrated into folklore. Drozhzhin is one of the most prolific peasant poets, having published more than 30 collections of poetry; at the end of his life, old motifs are repeated in his poems, which intersect with the new pathos of socialist affirmation.
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Biography
The next years of Drozhzhin's life were spent wandering around Russia, he changed many professions.
At the age of 16, Drozhzhin wrote his first poem, in 1867 he began a diary, which he kept until the end of his life.
The first publication of Drozhzhin in the magazine " Literate" (). Since that time, Drozhzhin began to be published in many magazines: Delo, Slovo, Family Evenings, Russian Wealth, Awakening, etc., including those from Tver - Tver Bulletin (1878-1882).
Due to the poor financial situation and under the influence of meetings with Leo Tolstoy (1892, 1897), he returned to his homeland (1896), devoting himself to literary work. In 1903, the "Circle of Writers from the People" organized an evening dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the poetic activity of S. D. Drozhzhin; one of the organizers of the evening was Ivan Bunin, who called Drozhzhin "the most gifted self-taught poet".
The Academy of Sciences awarded Drozhzhin a lifetime pension in 1903; in 1910 - a prize for the collections Treasured Songs, Poems 1866-1888, New Russian Songs, Bayan; in 1915 - an honorary review named after A. S. Pushkin for the collection "Songs of the Old Ploughman".
Drozhzhin's early poetry experienced a variety of influences. Many poems of the pre-October period were very popular among the people, became songs, were recorded for gramophones, penetrated into folklore. Drozhzhin's work inspired the composers A. Chernyavsky ("Lovely fun", "At the well" - an introduction to the poem "Dunyasha", "A beautiful girl, you are my sweetheart ..."), V. Rebikov ("Ah, what are you talking about, swallow ... "," The day is burning down at dawn ... "," The heat of spring rays ... "," Oh, whenever the sun ... "," I am for a sincere song ... "), V. Bakaleinikova ("Ah, I’m already, young, baby ..." , “Rural idyll”, “Ah, what are you talking about, swallow ...”, “Beautiful girl, you are my sweetheart ...”), F. Lasheka (“Not a grass from the frost ...”, “The day is burning down the dawn ...”, “What do I , well done, need ... "), V Ziring ("Reaper") and others. The performers of the songs were F. I. Chaliapin, N. V. Plevitskaya ("Oh, what are you talking about, swallow ...", "Ah, I , young, young ... ”,“ Rural idyll ”,“ Lovely fun ”), A. D. Vyaltseva.
Drozhzhin is one of the most prolific peasant poets, having published more than 30 collections of poetry; at the end of his life, old motifs are repeated in his poems, which intersect with the new pathos of socialist affirmation.
He spent his last years in Nizovka. He published a lot in local periodicals, including in the Zarnitsa almanac.
Books by Spiridon Drozhzhin
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Notes
Literature
- Russian writers. 1800-1917. Biographical Dictionary. T. 2: G - K. Moscow: Great Russian Encyclopedia, 1992. S. 186-187.
- Pogorelov T. Drozhzhin and his poetry. Ufa. - 1906
- In memory of SD Drozhzhin: To the 20th anniversary of the death of the poet. Kalinin. - 1951
- Ilyin L. Kaysyn Kuliev about Rainer Rilke and Spiridon Drozhzhin // Tver: Almanac. M. - 1989
- Creativity SD Drozhzhin in the context of Russian literature of the XX century. Tver. - 1999
- Boynikov A. M. Poetry of Spiridon Drozhzhin: Monograph. Tver: Tver.state. un-t, 2005.
Links
An excerpt characterizing Drozhzhin, Spiridon Dmitrievich
- And you too.– Excuse me, please, Isolde, but why is your world so bright? Stella couldn't contain her curiosity.
- Oh, it's just that where I lived, it was almost always cold and foggy ... And where I was born, the sun always shone, it smelled of flowers, and only in winter there was snow. But even then it was sunny ... I missed my country so much that even now I just can’t enjoy it enough ... True, my name is cold, but this is because I was lost when I was little, and they found me on the ice. So they called Isolde ...
– Oh, but the truth is made of ice!.. I would never have thought of it!.. – I stared dumbfounded at her.
“What’s more! .. But Tristan didn’t have a name at all ... He lived like that all his life without a name,” Isolde smiled.
How about Tristan?
“Well, what are you, dear, it’s just “owning three camps,” Isolde laughed. – After all, his whole family died when he was still very young, so they didn’t give a name, when the time came – there was no one.
“Why are you explaining all this as if in my language?” It's in Russian!
- And we are Russians, or rather - we were then ... - the girl corrected herself. “And now, who knows who we will be ...
- How - Russians? .. - I was confused.
- Well, maybe not quite ... But in your concept, these are Russians. It’s just that then there were more of us and everything was more diverse - our land, and language, and life ... It was a long time ago ...
– But how does the book say that you were Irish and Scots?! .. Or is it all wrong again?
- Well, why not? It's the same thing, it's just that my father came from "warm" Russia to become the owner of that "island" camp, because the wars never ended there, and he was an excellent warrior, so they asked him. But I always yearned for "my" Russia... I was always cold on those islands...
“May I ask you how you really died?” If it doesn't hurt you, of course. In all the books it is written differently about it, but I would really like to know how it really was ...
- I gave his body to the sea, it was customary for them ... But I went home myself ... But I never reached ... I didn’t have enough strength. I so wanted to see our sun, but I couldn’t ... Or maybe Tristan “didn’t let go” ...
“But how does it say in the books that you died together, or that you killed yourself?”
– I don’t know, Svetlaya, I didn’t write these books… But people have always loved to tell each other stories, especially beautiful ones. So they embellished it so that they stirred up the soul more ... And I myself died many years later, without interrupting my life. It was forbidden.
- You must have been very sad to be so far from home?
- Yes, how can I tell you ... At first, it was even interesting while my mother was alive. And when she died, the whole world faded for me... I was too small then. And she never loved her father. He only lived in war, even I had only the price for him that I could exchange for me by marrying ... He was a warrior to the marrow of his bones. And he died like this. And I always dreamed of returning home. I even saw dreams... But it didn't work.
- Do you want us to take you to Tristan? First, we will show you how, and then you will walk by yourself. It's just…” I suggested, hoping in my heart that she would agree.
I really wanted to see this whole legend “in full”, since such an opportunity arose, and at least I was a little ashamed, but this time I decided not to listen to my strongly indignant “inner voice”, but to try to somehow convince Isolde to “walk” on the lower "floor" and find her Tristan there for her.
I really loved this "cold" northern legend. She won my heart from the very moment she fell into my hands. Happiness in her was so fleeting, but there was so much sadness! .. Actually, as Isolde said, apparently they added a lot there, because it really hooked the soul very much. Or maybe it was so?.. Who could truly know this?.. After all, those who saw all this did not live for a long time. That's why I so strongly wanted to take advantage of this, probably the only case, and find out how everything really happened ...
Isolde sat quietly, thinking about something, as if not daring to take advantage of this unique opportunity that so unexpectedly presented itself to her, and to see the one whom fate had separated from her for so long ...
– I don’t know... Do I need all this now... Maybe just leave it like that? Isolde whispered in confusion. - It hurts a lot ... I wouldn’t make a mistake ...
I was incredibly surprised by her fear! It was the first time since the day when I first spoke to the dead, that someone refused to talk or see someone whom I once loved so deeply and tragically ...
- Please, let's go! I know you will regret it later! We'll just show you how to do it, and if you don't want to, then you won't go there anymore. But you must have a choice. A person should have the right to choose for himself, right, right?
Finally she nodded.
“Well then, let’s go, Light One. You're right, I shouldn't hide behind "the back of the impossible", that's cowardice. And we never liked cowards. And I've never been one of them...
I showed her my protection and, to my great surprise, she did it very easily, without even thinking. I was very happy, because it greatly facilitated our "campaign".
- Well, are you ready? .. - Stella smiled cheerfully, apparently to cheer her up.
We plunged into the sparkling darkness and, after a few short seconds, were already “floating” along the silvery path of the Astral level...
“It’s very beautiful here ...” Isolda whispered, “but I saw him in another, not so bright place ...
“It's here too... Just a little lower,” I reassured her. "You'll see, now we'll find him."
We “slipped” a little deeper, and I was ready to see the usual “terribly oppressive” lower astral reality, but, to my surprise, nothing of the kind happened ... We ended up in a rather pleasant, but, really, very gloomy and what something sad landscape. Heavy, muddy waves splashed on the rocky shore of the dark blue sea... Lazily “chasing” one after another, they “knocked” against the shore and reluctantly, slowly, returned back, dragging gray sand and small, black, shiny pebbles. Farther on, a majestic, huge, dark green mountain was visible, the top of which shyly hid behind gray, swollen clouds. The sky was heavy, but not intimidating, completely covered with gray clouds. Along the shore, in places, stingy dwarf bushes of some unfamiliar plants grew. Again - the landscape was gloomy, but "normal" enough, in any case, it resembled one of those that could be seen on the ground on a rainy, very cloudy day ... And that "screaming horror" like the others we saw on this "floor" of the place, he did not inspire us ...
(6(18).12.1848 – 24.12.1930)
An outstanding Russian peasant self-taught poet of the end of the 19th - the first third of the 20th century. Spiridon Dmitrievich Drozhzhin was born in the village of Nizovka, Gorodnensky volost, Tver district, Tver province (according to other sources, in the village of Pugino, neighboring Nizovka) on December 18 (6), 1848, in the family of the poorest peasants, serf landowner M.G. Bezobrazov. Drozhzhins lived very poorly and oppressive, poverty-stricken need from childhood surrounded the future poet. At the same time, the formation of his personality was most directly influenced by the patriarchal atmosphere of the peasant way of life, as well as the instillation in him from childhood of the rudiments of the Orthodox faith, especially by his grandfather, who "was unusually devout" and "passionate lover of the books of the Holy Scriptures."
In the autumn of 1858, his mother took young Spiridon to school with a village deacon, where he studied for "two incomplete winters." Then, at the end of 1860, S.D. Due to the difficult financial situation of the family, Drozhzhin was sent by his parents to work in St. Petersburg. His first profession was a sexual boy in a dirty tavern "Caucasus" at the hotel "Europe".
Subsequently, trying to get out of poverty, Drozhzhin changed many occupations: he was a clerk in a tobacco shop and a gas candle store, a barman's assistant, a laborer, a footman at the landowner, entrusted with the supply of firewood to the Nikolaev railway, an agent of the Volga shipping company "Airplane", a seller in bookstores stores, studied at the school of dairy farming N.V. Vereshchagin. During the entire 35-year period of wanderings, the poet alternately lived in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Tashkent, Kharkov, Novgorod and Yaroslavl provinces. Drozhzhin had months of complete poverty, when he had to pawn items of clothing and spend the night right on the streets and in parks. The forced need to sell his labor for a meager wage, the constant material and housing dependence on employers, formed the poet's heightened sense of social inequality, which he embodied in many poems.
In 1863, Drozhzhin first got acquainted with the work of N.A. Nekrasov, in 1864 - with the revolutionary-democratic magazine Iskra. Tirelessly engaged in self-education, in 1866 the poet entered the Imperial Public Library. The circle of his reading included the works of L.N. Tolstoy, I.S. Turgenev, A.F. Pisemsky, I.A. Goncharova, N.G. Pomyalovsky, G.I. Uspensky and others, as well as the works of N.A. Dobrolyubova and N.G. Chernyshevsky. In the poet's personal library there were books by A.S. Pushkin, M.Yu. Lermontov, A.V. Koltsova, V.G. Belinsky, I.S. Nikitina, T.G. Shevchenko, N.A. Nekrasov, F. Schiller, P. Beranger. A visit to a meeting of a circle of St. Petersburg raznochintsy students in 1867 contributed to the formation of S.D. Drozhzhin, in which revolutionary-democratic and Orthodox-sovereign views were combined (for example, in the poem "Rus (1875) he relies on the well-known triad" Orthodoxy, autocracy, nationality ").
The entire period of forced wanderings S.D. Drozhzhin maintained family, social and spiritual ties with his rural homeland. Periodically returning to Nizovka, the poet enjoys agricultural work, which becomes for him a source of not only moral satisfaction, but also creative inspiration (“The First Furrow” (1884), “The Plowman’s Song” (1891) and other poems).
The first poetic experiments of S.D. Drozhzhin date back to 1865, but the publication of the poem "Song about the grief of a good fellow" at the end of 1873 in the journal "Literacy" is considered to be the beginning of his creative activity.
In February 1878 S.D. Drozhzhin becomes close to the Orthodox writer and teacher N.A. Solovyov-Nesmelov (1847-1901), who had a huge impact on the spiritual and creative development of the poet. With his mediation, Drozhzhin from the beginning of the 1880s. published in the magazines "Family Evenings", "Light", "Children's Reading", "Ray", "Spring", "Education and Education", "Young Russia", "Rebus", poetry collections, and in 1879 began a correspondence with I.Z. Surikov. In 1880-1881. he, along with N.A. Solovyov-Nesmelov and several other writers organized the "Pushkin Circle", due to participation in which in 1884 he fell under the covert supervision of the police.
In 1884, the autobiographical narrative “Poet-Peasant S.D. Drozhzhin in his memoirs. 1848-1884”, written by order of the editor-publisher M.I. Semevsky. In 1889, the first book of the poet was published in St. Petersburg, and literary criticism began to pay serious attention to him. However, S.D. Drozhzhin continues to experience need and deprivation: his two sons die in infancy, and in 1894 his house burns down in Nizovka along with the library and manuscripts.
In 1896 S.D. Drozhzhin, together with his family, finally returns to his native village, where he combines peasant labor with literary creativity. This decision was supported by L.N. Tolstoy, with whom S.D. Drozhzhin met in 1892 and 1897. The creative result of this step was the final self-identification of S.D. Drozhzhin as a national Orthodox poet-peasant who merged with his native "soil" both physically and spiritually.
At the turn of the XIX-XX centuries. the poet reaches the peak of literary activity and readership fame: 32 out of 35 of his lifetime books were published in 1898-1929. Collections by S.D. Drozhzhin "Songs of a Peasant" (1898), "Poetry of Labor and Grief" (1901), "New Poems" (1904), "Bayan" (1909) and others. Despite his constant stay in the village, he does not break away from the all-Russian literary and cultural life: maintains relationships and makes new acquaintances with publishers, editors and writers A.A. Korinfsky, I.A. Belousov, F.F. Fidler, N.N. Zlatovratsky, I.I. Gorbunov-Posadov, M.L. Leonov and others. In 1899, the poet became a member of the fund for mutual assistance of writers and scientists, in 1905 - in the Society of Lovers of Russian Literature. In 1903, the Surikov literary and musical circle, which, together with Drozhzhin, included "writers from the people" M.L. Leonov, E.E. Nechaev, F.S. Shkulev and others, organizes his celebration in Moscow in connection with the 30th anniversary of his literary activity. On verses by S.D. Drozhzhin composed music by more than 30 composers, including Ts.A. Cui, V.S. Kalinnikov, V.I. Rebikov, F.O. Lashek, R.M. Glier, A.N. Chernyavsky. Two songs on his poems were performed by F.I. Chaliapin.
Poetry S.D. Drozhzhina attracted the attention of the outstanding German poet R.M. Rilke, who visited Nizovka on July 18-23, 1900 and translated several of his poems into German.
In 1900-1903. S.D. Drozhzhin was a village headman. This fact testified that the peasants saw him as their authoritative representative. The poet, although he tried to distance himself from the burden of public concerns, perceived his new duty as an opportunity to serve the people, which was quite consistent with his democratic convictions.
In 1903, the Russian Academy of Sciences assigned the poet an annual life-long pension named after Emperor Nicholas II in the amount of 180 rubles, which became his main source of income. In December 1910, based on the recall of the honorary academician K.K. Romanov (K.R.) four books by S.D. Drozhzhin in 1907-1909, publications were awarded the M.N. Akhmatova in the amount of 500 rubles. On November 11, 1912, the poet received a brief audience with K.K. Romanova. This meeting, as well as a sketch about himself sent later with a dedicatory inscription to K.R., he took with great joy.
The main themes of S.D. Drozhzhin were rural work and life, landscapes of all seasons, selfless patriotic service to the Motherland and social protest against the oppressed position of the poorest strata of the people, lyrical and philosophical reflections on the universal constants of being, moral perfection, peasant grief and spiritual stoicism. Despite the continuity of S.D. Drozhzhin from the material and spiritual way of life of the Tver village, his poetry, according to the degree of typification of social processes and life situations, thoughts and inner experiences of the lyrical hero - a peasant plowman - belongs to all-Russian, and not to regionally closed literary phenomena. Thanks to the folk song basis, the expression of the peasant worldview, the national character, the folklore axiology and imagery, the authenticity of life, the simplicity of the style, it was accessible to the widest readership.
Many poems by S.D. Drozhzhin about rural labor are imbued with a genuine sense of healthy optimism, the poeticization of agriculture. He emphasizes such a feature of the peasant mentality as non-possessiveness, but at the same time, he did not deny the ideal of modest prosperity that exists in the mind of the peasant, provided exclusively by his own hands.
The labor joy of the peasant was accompanied by a considerable number of troubles: he suffered material need, the death of a plowman horse in the midst of sowing, crop failure, hunger, and poverty. A whole gamut of pessimistic motives and situations associated with this side of village life, which can be combined with the collective expression "peasant grief", unfolds in Drozhzhin's poems "Two Pores" (1876), "The Death of the Plowman Horse" (1877), "Into the Drought" (1897), “On the Volga” (1899) “Autumn Night” (1907), etc. Nevertheless, even at the level of the figurative system, the poet contrasts peasant labor with urban labor: the first one is “cheerful”, “peppy”, “free ”, “joyful”, the second - “bonded”, “oppressive”, “overwhelming”. Unlike the village, the city almost does not generate positive emotions in Drozhzhin. The description of the plant and the cramped rooms where the urban poor huddle acquire in his urban lyrics the features of infernality and phantasmagoria (“Night” (1887), “In the capital” (1884), “It’s hard for me to remember ...” (1899), etc.). The antithesis "city-village" is similarly projected onto the domestic sphere.
Depicting rural reality, S.D. Drozhzhin constantly dreamed of the embodiment of a century-old peasant dream in the form of a kind of "peasant's paradise", the benefits of which, expressed in idealized attributes of life, would become the highest reward for peasant labor. The motif of honest labor is one of the most pervasive in Drozhzhin's lyrics.
Nature in Drozhzhin's poems is unpretentious in external beauty forest, water and meadow landscapes of the Upper Volga region. They are distinguished by realistic specifics, convexity, close connection with the economic cycle of peasant life, the synthesis of natural and everyday landscapes. However, in every season, the poet, along with admiration for spring, the joy of summer, the “autumn festival” (harvesting), the tranquility of winter, still embodies the inconsistency of peasant life, which also gives rise to more complicated combinations of psychological moods.
Out of love for the surrounding peasant and natural world - a purely concrete and extremely material - has grown in the poetry of S.D. Drozhzhin has a high and unshakable sense of patriotism. Love for a small homeland causes in his soul all-human responsiveness, love for the whole world.
As the main civic motives in Drozhzhin's pre-revolutionary poems, the desire for freedom was entrenched, perceived primarily as a peasant will and a protest against social injustice (“Not a cheerful tune ...” (1878), “Give free will to honest impulses ...” (1879), “Will "(1905)," From desolate bitter thoughts ..." (1906), etc.). At the same time, the concept of civil peace was the ideological core of the poet's political convictions. In the poem "After a long separation" (1917), dedicated to the neighbor-landowner N.A. Tolstoy (1856-1918), he does not advocate the aggravation of social confrontation, but the reconciliation of various social groups on the basis of the highest civil and spiritual value - Russia.
Social, cultural, moral and philosophical foundation of the worldview and creativity of S.D. Drozhzhin has always remained the Orthodox faith. That is why Christian spirituality, moral and moral premises, gospel stories and biblical allusions permeate all the thematic blocks and motifs of his lyrics. The religiosity of a Russian person in the works of Drozhzhin is a natural norm of behavior. His Christian aura pervades the rural landscape, the surrounding nature, and the immensity of the universe.
S.D. Drozhzhin also created many Orthodox civic poems, for example, “For 1879” (1878), “Drinking Song” (1880), “Glory to the Most High God” (1886), “To God” (1909) and others. In poetic prayers he stands up before Christ for the personal attainment of the highest Christian virtues.
The bipolarity of folk life led to the ambivalence of S.D. Drozhzhin, which was most convincingly embodied in his program poem "I am for a sincere song ..." (1891).
February, and then the October Revolution S.D. Drozhzhin initially met with enthusiasm, seeing in them the real implementation of the ideal of free peasant Russia. But, being wary of revolutionary innovations, in the spring of 1917 he refused to participate in the work of the volost executive committee and become chairman of the volost court.
In 1918-1920. S.D. Drozhzhin, shocked by new national disasters, in a number of his poems ("It's terrible to live and boring ..." (1918), "Tsar-Hunger" (1919), "The soul hurts, the mind is troubled ..." (1920), etc.) angrily denounces the anti-national and the anti-Orthodox essence of the October Revolution, the “Red Terror”, the total robbery of peasants in the process of requisitioning, the cruelty of suppressing popular uprisings, and the fratricidal Civil War.
The taking hostage and extrajudicial execution of N.A. had a particularly depressing effect on the poet. Tolstoy with his wife. For these reasons, in the early 1920s. S.D. Drozhzhin, besides deprived of his former material support, is experiencing a deep spiritual crisis, which he did not completely overcome in subsequent years, which is confirmed by his correspondence with long-time poet friends A.A. Korinfsky, M.L. Leonov and I.A. Belousov.
House-Museum of S.D. Drozhzhina |
Nevertheless, the poet participates in the work of the I Congress of Tver poets and writers from the people, held in Tver on November 6-8, 1919, maintains close creative and personal contacts with members of the Tver Literary and Art Society named after I.S. Nikitin. In order not to die of hunger, Drozhzhin, overcoming ailments, speaks at literary evenings in Moscow, Tver, Klin, Zavidov, Redkin.
Since 1923, the unfavorable situation around the poet began to change for the better. His readership is on the rise again. At the request of the Society for the Study of the Tver Territory, on February 20, 1923, the Central Commission for the Improvement of the Life of Scientists appointed S.D. Drozhzhin an increased pension and academic rations. In Nizovka itself, delegations of schoolchildren and fellow writers visit the poet; he also receives many letters from admirers of his talent. In 1923, the Tver Nikitin people prepared and held a celebration of the poet in connection with his 75th birthday. In the same year, five books by S.D. were published in Moscow and Tver at once. Drozhzhin, and he himself was elected an honorary member of the All-Russian Union of Poets. Drozhzhin's name is given to several schools, one of the streets of Tver, and a steamboat. Drozhzhino rooms are opened in the Tver and Rzhev museums, and Nizovka is renamed Drozhzhino. By order of the People's Commissar of Posts and Telegraphs, on February 27, 1926, a radio receiver was installed in the poet's house, and in the year of his 80th birthday, he received a greeting from the President of the USSR Academy of Sciences A.P. Karpinsky.
Despite the popularization of his poetry, the recognition of his services to literature and the people, the work of S.D. Drozhzhin after 1917 was interpreted in a vulgar sociological vein and was subjected to strong censorial intervention: poems on Orthodox themes were thrown out of books, many works were ruthlessly stopped or subjected to ideological editorial editing, often self-willed. In Tver itself, the celebration of the 80th anniversary of the poet was used by the local authorities, primarily for political purposes. Publications in the newspapers Tverskaya Pravda and Smena falsified the complex pages of Drozhzhin's life, created a mythologized and far from reality image of a working poet, tirelessly singing the praises of Soviet power.
As a result, despite the favor of high officials of the Soviet state, S.D. Drozhzhin in the depths of his consciousness remained an "internal emigrant", sometimes openly demonstrating opposition to the new government. So, in the summer of 1929, he received the poet A.A. Korinfsky, who was arrested on November 14, 1928 in Leningrad in the case of “participation in the counter-revolutionary work of a group of monarchists”, was convicted by the decision of the OGPU Collegium of May 13, 1929 under Articles 58-10 and 58-11 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR (anti-Soviet agitation) and sent to Tver.
S.D. Drozhzhin died in Nizovka on December 24, 1930. In 1937, during the construction of the Ivankovsky reservoir, the ashes of the poet and his house were transferred from the flood zone to the village. Zavidovo, where on May 1, 1938 the House-Museum of S.D. Drozhzhin.
A.M. Boynikov, candidate of philological sciences, associate professor,
member of the Union of Writers of Russia, member of the Union of Journalists of Russia.
Bibliography:
Drozhzhin S.D. Collected works: in 3 volumes - Tver: SFC-office, 2015. - V. 1-3.
Boynikov A.M. Poetry of Spiridon Drozhzhin: monograph. - Tver: TVGU, 2005. - 228 p.
Spiridon Dmitrievich Drozhzhin: Bibliography. decree. - Tver: Miracle, 1998. - 115 p.
Spiridon Drozhzhin through the eyes of contemporaries and descendants. - Tver: Golden Letter, 2001. - 240 p.
Goncharova I.A., Redkin V.A. Zealots of Traditions: Essay on the Tver Literary and Art Society named after I.S. Nikitin. - Tver: Tver regional book and magazine publishing house, 2002. - 192 p.
Ivanova L.N. Drozhzhin Spiridon Dmitrievich // Russian writers. 1800-1917. Biographical Dictionary. - M., 1992. - T. 2. - S. 187.
Drozhzhin Spiridon Dmitrievich, poet, was born (3 (18) ).XII.1848 in the village of Nizovka, Tver province, in the family of a serf.
In the autumn of 1858 he was sent to school to the village deacon, from whom he studied writing and counting for about two winters. The education of Spiridon Dmitrievich ended there.
In 1860 he was sent to St. Petersburg to work. He serves as a sex boy in the "Caucasus" tavern, where he first gets acquainted with popular literature and low-quality magazines such as "Mirsky Messenger" and "Reading for Soldiers". Over time, the circle of Drozhzhin's reading interests expands, he visits the St. Petersburg Public Library, is fond of poems by N. A. Nekrasov and A. S. Pushkin, begins to keep a diary, gets acquainted with democratically minded students.
At the age of 17, Spiridon Dmitrievich wrote his first poem and since then began to write regularly.
The poet lives in constant need, spending the last money to buy books. He dreams of a university, but he did not have to study. In search of work, Spiridon Dmitrievich was forced to wander around the cities of Russia, changing one profession after another: he worked as a salesman in tobacco shops in St. Moscow and Kharkov and so on.
In 1870 he submitted five of his best poems to the Illustrated Gazette, but they were rejected.
In December 1873, his “Song about the grief of a good young man” appeared in the magazine “Literacy”, and since then Drozhzhin has been published in the magazines “Delo”, “Slovo”, “Light”, “Family Evenings”, “Motherland”, “Russian wealth" and others.
In 1889, the first collection of Drozhzhin's works, Poems 1866-1888, was published. with the author's notes about his life", which contributed to the growth of his popularity, but did not strengthen his financial situation.
At the beginning of 1896, exhausted by endless hardships, Spiridon Dmitrievich returned to the village of Nizovka and devoted himself entirely to literary work and agriculture. The appearance of the poet in his homeland brought a lot of trouble to the local authorities. Behind him was established tacit police supervision. One after another, his poetry collections are published -
"Poetry of labor and grief" (1901),
"New Poems" (1904),
"Year of the Peasant" (1906),
"Cherished Songs" (1907),
"New Russian Songs" (1909).
His poems are translated into foreign languages.
In 1900 Drozhzhin was visited by the translator of his poems, the German poet Rainer Rilke.
In 1903, the Surikov circle "Writers from the People" organized an evening in Moscow dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the poet's literary activity.
In 1910, the Academy of Sciences awarded him a prize.
In 1915 - for the collection "Songs of the Old Ploughman" - an honorary review to them. A. S. Pushkin.
The poet met the October Revolution at the age of 69. Continuing to write poetry, he is involved in social work, travels a lot around the country, speaking with readings of his works. Drozhzhin prepares and publishes new collections -
"Songs of Labor and Freedom" (1923),
"Songs" (1928),
"Songs of a Peasant" (1929),
"Ways-roads" (1929), etc.
Spiridon Dmitrievich devoted the last three years of his life to the preparation for publication of the Complete Works in 4 volumes, brought "Notes on Life and Poetry" to 1930.
The theme of peasant life is the leading one in the poet’s work “My muse was born a simple peasant woman,” he admitted in one of his poems (“My Muse”, 1875). He realistically depicts the pre-revolutionary village, crammed with poverty and grief (“Fierce Woe”, 1878; “In the Hut”, 1882; “In the Dark Night”, 1883), the plight of peasants suffering from arbitrariness and oppression of the kulaks (“Into the Drought”, 1897). The poet sees “eternal need” not only in the countryside, but also in the city (Songs of the Workers, 1875), although he does not go beyond complaints. Spiridon Dmitrievich knows the everyday life of the village to the smallest detail. He writes with great warmth about the industriousness of the common people (“In the suffering”, 1875), poetically sings of Russian nature (“I love burning frosts ...”, 1885). The theme of the motherland becomes central in the post-revolutionary work of Drozhzhin. He welcomes the “long-awaited victory” - the revolution (“Centuries of evil captivity have passed ...”, 1918), sings about the “happy lot” of “free people” (“After the storm again ...”, 1929).
One of his best poems - "For a long time I sang about the people" - the poet dedicated to the memory of V. I. Lenin.
Poetry by Drozhzhin S.D. developed under the strong influence of Russian democratic poetry (Koltsov, Nekrasov, Nikitin) and oral folk art, especially song lyrics.
Spiridon Dmitrievich introduces verses from folk songs into his works (poems: "Dunyasha", 1880; "Halt on the Volga", 1880), widely uses folklore poetics. His poems are characterized by negative comparisons, psychological parallelism, song symbolism, and so on. Many poems are set to music by The Reaper, 1871;
“Ah, what are you talking about, swallow ...”, 1875;
"Lovely fun ...", 1890;
"Do not wormwood with dodder grass ...", 1894, etc.
The best poems have firmly entered the history of Russian poetry.
Died 24.XII. 1930 in the village of Nizovka, Tver province.
In 2016, the first collected works of the poet-peasant were published.The three-volume book of Spiridon Dmitrievich Drozhzhin (1848-1930) was published by the Tver publishing house SKF-office, but it appeared thanks to the efforts of many: Andrei Ogirenko, General Director of the Golutvinskaya Sloboda Group of Companies, where the project for the integrated development of the Maloe Zavidovo territory is being developed, the administration of the Vakhonin rural settlement with the support RGNF and the Government of the Tver Region (research project No. 13-14-69001 a / C) and the grandson of the poet, Valentin Semyonovich Morev. And the main scientific force in this work was the famous historian of literature and folklorist, professor, doctor of philological sciences Mikhail Viktorovich STROGANOV. Today he talks about Drozhzhin, the Tver region and Russian poetry, unfolding in space and time...
- Mikhail Viktorovich, in fact, the name of Drozhzhin has been known to everyone since the primer. His lines “Everything is green... / The sun shines, / The lark's song / It pours and rings ...”; “The street walks / Grandfather Frost ... / Hoarfrost scatters / Along the branches of birches” are remembered from early childhood. However, even experts know little about their author, and most only know that he was a peasant who suddenly began to write poetry. How did it happen? Please tell us about his life.
Drozhzhin was born into a serf family in 1848, thirteen years before the abolition of serfdom. And his formation as a person fell on the era of great reforms, when the peasants received personal freedom and legal rights to education. This was indeed a great turning point in the life of Russia, which we have not actually realized yet. We rightly talk about the difficult economic situation of the emancipated peasants, but we unfairly keep silent about the fact that these peasants could study and work not only on the land, but also in the cities, receive a variety of professions. These professions were also low paid, but we do not know about the movement of workers around the world (unlike peasants). The working conditions of the workers were just as hopelessly difficult, but there was a possibility of choice, which each person could dispose of (at least in principle) in accordance with his own strengths and capabilities. It wasn't even there before.
Here is Drozhzhin's school: a sex boy in the St. Petersburg tavern "Caucasus", then a clerk in various tobacco shops, after a lackey with a Yaroslavl nobleman. Here are his universities: a clerk in a shop at a tobacco factory in Tashkent, a trustee for the supply of firewood at the station of the Nikolaev railway, a clerk in bookstores. Each new step was a step forward, each time Drozhzhin's status rose. I do not want to deceive myself and others and claim that this path was one-way and easy. There were difficult periods in his life, and failures, and breakdowns, and almost all the time - depressing lack of money. But it would be historically wrong, and in relation to Drozhzhin himself, it would be unfair to speak only of adversity and not see great human growth. Now, if we combine in our minds all the hardships and hardships with all the successes and overcomings, then the picture will be clearer. The peasant went all his life to achieve his dream.
And Drozhzhin had two permanent dreams: a dream of poetry, song and beauty, and a dream of peasant village life, which never left his desire to return to his native places. Drozhzhin left his native Nizovka against his will. The father returned from St. Petersburg, where he unsuccessfully tried to earn a quitrent, and the family decided to send the first-born Spirya to the capital to feed: there was nothing to feed in the land-poor and infertile Nizovka. Torn from home, Drozhzhin really wanted to return and returned several times, but each time he was forced to leave again to work. He was able to return and settle in Nizovka only when he received a permanent imperial pension for his literary work - an annual hundred rubles. The poems brought him back to peasant life. But at first, for these verses, he received nothing but poking, both from the servants of the "Kavkaz" and from his relatives.
- We know that in Scotland there was such a peasant poet, Robert Burns, who gained world fame, even whiskey is produced with his name. And in world poetry there are many such farmers with a notebook for poems behind a sash? In Russian poetry?
- I have already said that Drozhzhin is among those Russian peasants who, with their liberation from serfdom, were looking for new ways in life. These new paths were inevitably associated with an increase in the cultural and educational level. There were such peasant poets in every national culture, but not all of them took such a place as Burns or Shevchenko in the cultures of their peoples. Drozhzhin was well aware of his typological similarity with these poets. He knew Burns (he was translated by Drozhzhin's close friend Ivan Belousov), and Shevchenko (and he himself translated, imitated him, went to his grave - the only literary journey in his life). But Shevchenko stood at the origins of the national poetry of the Ukrainian people, and the work of Burns coincided with the national revival of the Scottish people, which is why they received the status of national poets. The situation was different in Russia, where there was already a national poet, where by the time of Drozhzhin's poetic work there were many other remarkable poets, and where he himself was a contemporary of the Symbolists. So there is a typological similarity, but in the evolutionary series these are different phenomena.
- Is Drozhzhin noticeable in this row? What makes him different from others like him?
- If in comparison with the significance of Burns and Shevchenko for their cultures, the significance of Drozhzhin for the Russian was much less, then among Russian peasant poets, poets from the people, Drozhzhin was perhaps the most remarkable. The second half of the 19th century produced a huge number of folk poets, but Drozhzhin not only left the greatest poetic and prose legacy, but also created a cultural precedent of great power from his life. He showed how a person from the very bottom, who does not have the slightest education, is knocked out to a great creative life. He built his life for himself, of course. But he also built it for others, as a model. And in this sense, Drozhzhin is great and unique.
Drozhzhin called himself a peasant poet, although, to be honest, he knew little about peasant labor. But Drozhzhin inspired his reader with the idea of a peasant poet, and that is how he entered the public consciousness. It was the project of his whole life, a bright, original and successful project.
- Speaking of Drozhzhin, they always remember his meeting with Rilke, but sometimes such stories are not without speculation and exaggeration. Please tell us how it really happened.
“Unfortunately, you can’t tell it in a nutshell. I have written a large paper on this, but have not yet published it. This is a very funny story about how the European culture of the end of the century created a myth about the whole and mysterious Russian soul, and how, upon closer examination, this myth collapsed. The real Drozhzhin has nothing to do with the myths that Rilke composed. But the most important thing is that Drozhzhin is interesting not because Rilke translated several of his poems.
– For my taste, the modern edition of the works of even forgotten poets is not only a noble cause, but also necessary for the healthy development of culture. And yet - how did the idea to publish Drozhzhin come about, what goal did you, as a scientist, set for yourself? Who else participated in the preparation of the publication?
– In my life I published several half-forgotten and even unknown Russian poets: Pyotr Pletnev, Fyodor Lvov, Alexander Bakunin, Alexander Bashilov, Viktor Teplyakov. Usually I made these books with my colleagues, but it was my initiative. Drozhzhin is not an ordinary project for me. Back in 1996, when the 150th anniversary of the poet was celebrated, Evgenia Stroganova, professor at the Department of the History of Russian Literature at Tver University, which I then headed, encouraged me to conduct scientific readings dedicated to Drozhzhin. She herself did not participate in these readings, but we had a collection in which, in addition to scientific articles, all known memories of Drozhzhin were collected. While working on this collection, I became friends with the late Leonid Andreyevich Ilyin, who in 1938 created the Drozhzhin Museum in the village of Zavidovo, Konakovo District, where the poet’s house was moved after Nizovka was flooded by the Ivankovsky Reservoir. He generously shared his knowledge and materials. And in 2010, the current head of this museum, Elena Vladimirovna Pavlova, an amazingly enterprising and creative person, prompted me to take up Drozhzhin; it was she who found our sponsors Golutvinskaya Sloboda Group of Companies and its CEO Andrey Ogirenko. A large and important role in the work on the collection was played by my colleague, a well-known journalist from Tver, candidate of philological sciences Evgeny Viktorovich Petrenko. So think about what goal you set for yourself. Initially, there was an interest in bringing the writer back into literature, because only more or less complete publication of texts introduces the writer to the world. But then the idea of Drozhzhin, which I tried to outline at the beginning of our conversation, began to take shape more clearly. I wanted not just to publish Drozhzhin, but to make just such Drozhzhin.
- Tell us, please, about the composition of the collection, about its completeness, about Drozhzhin's prose, which occupies the third volume.
- That's it, what kind of Drozhzhin? The first two volumes include all published and partly unpublished poems and poems. But Drozhzhin also wrote autobiographical prose all his life. He included an autobiography in almost all of his books, which he diligently rewrote from edition to edition. At the same time, very often the books were called like this: the life of the poet-peasant Drozhzhin with the application of his poems. The autobiography was published in the first place, and the poems had to be perceived against the background of this autobiography. Drozhzhin seemed to say: here it is, the prose of life, from which it was born - here it is! - poetry. And the autobiographical prose made up the third volume: three fundamentally different versions of the autobiography (there were, as one can judge, five in total, the rest differed slightly from them) and a diary of 1921-1930. This diary is in itself a magnificent document of the era: letters from readers, poetic dedications of colleagues in the pen, a chronicle of literary and social life. And next to this - a somewhat naive and very understandable senile emotion of their success. Reading this diary, you involuntarily recall Mayakovsky:
sitting
dad.
Everyone
cunning
The earth will plow
pee
poems.
Maybe it was written about Drozhzhin, but no one dealt with this issue.
– How do folklore and literature correlate in Drozhzhin’s work?
– I think the question is more difficult. Drozhzhin is naive poetry that has become professional. Drozhzhin uses someone else's word in the way that folklore and naive poetry do, for which someone else means not having an author, but nobody's, common, therefore, someone else can be used not to nod at the predecessor, but because what is well said is not a sin and repeat . Drozhzhin, writing poetry, sang them, and the song is the favorite genre designation of his poems. But Drozhzhin was not included in the folk repertoire, unlike his kindred Ozhegov, Gorokhov, and especially the early Surikov. Professional poets wrote music to Drozhzhin's poems (a catalog of songs prepared by the candidate of art criticism Nina Konstantinovna Drozdetskaya is presented in the second volume of the collection), and in fact only one became a folk song - "At the well", a fragment from the poem "Dunyasha". Here is a folk poet, but he did not go to the people.
– The books are excellently published, the Tver Printing Plant, as always, is at its best, but I must say about the illustrations, about the photographs in all three volumes. What place is assigned to them in the general concept of the meeting?
- Collected works prepared by the publishing house "SFC-office", whose director Evgeny Mikhailovich Bondarev loves the book and loves to make it. The illustrative material of the publication was provided by the Zavidovo Drozhzhin Museum: old, faded photographs that suffered not only from time: in 1941, Zavidovo was in the occupation zone, the museum was looted, and the exhibits perished, thrown into the street. Our publisher has brought these old materials to such a quality that you now admire them. This one is nice. But in general, Bondarev and I wanted to present a poet-peasant, so we chose the color of the cover for burlap, and placed the photographs on spreads in one common frame, as was customary in peasant huts. If the reader notices this, he will understand our simple idea.
– What do you think is especially important in the collected works?
– Harmony is important in the assembly. It was important to find the boundary between the volumes of poetry: both more or less evenly, and so that the division corresponded to the periodization of creativity. It seems to have succeeded. The first volume - poems from the era of wanderings. The second volume - poems of settled life in Nizovka. The third volume is prose. It is wrong, of course, that prose was in second place: Drozhzhin's autobiographical prose preceded poetry. But we have not yet decided to begin the presentation of the poet-peasant with prose.
– Do you plan to continue your work on introducing other half-forgotten Russian writers, not necessarily peasants?
No, I don't have any such plans yet. There are various other plans, but not these. E. b. well.
The interview was conducted by Sergey DMITRENKO.
There are books in the fund of the Konakovo MCB
