Biography
Valery Yakovlevich Bryusov (December 1, 1873, Moscow - October 9, 1924, ibid.) - Russian poet, prose writer, playwright, translator, literary critic, literary critic and historian. One of the founders of Russian symbolism.
Childhood
Valery Bryusov was born on December 1 (13), 1873 in Moscow, into a merchant family. The future master of symbolism was on the maternal side the grandson of the poet-fabulist A. Ya. Bakulin, who published in the 1840s. the collection "Fables of a Provincial" (Bryusov signed some of his works with the name of his grandfather); having received his freedom, he began a trading business in Moscow.
Valery's grandfather, Kuzma Andreevich, the ancestor of the Bryusovs, was a serf of the landowner Bruce. In 1859, he bought himself free and moved from Kostroma to Moscow, where he bought a house on Tsvetnoy Boulevard. The poet was born in this house and lived until 1910.
Bryusov's father, Yakov Kuzmich Bryusov (1848-1907), sympathized with the ideas of the populist revolutionaries; he published poems in magazines; in 1884, Yakov Bryusov sent to the magazine "Intimate Word" written by his son "Letter to the Editor", describing the summer vacation of the Bryusov family; "letter" was published (No. 16, 1884).
Carried away by the races, the father squandered his entire fortune on the sweepstakes; he became interested in racing and his son, whose first independent publication (in the journal "Russian Sport" for 1889) is an article in defense of the sweepstakes. Parents did little to educate Valery, and the boy was left to his own devices; great attention in the family Bryusov was given to the "principles of materialism and atheism", so Valery was strictly forbidden to read religious literature ("From fairy tales, from any" devilry ", I was diligently guarded. But I learned about Darwin's ideas and the principles of materialism before I learned to multiply," recalled Bryusov) ; but at the same time, no other restrictions were imposed on the young man’s reading circle, therefore, among the “friends” of his early years were both natural science literature and “French boulevard novels”, books by Jules Verne and Mine Reed and scientific articles - the word “everything that came across under the arm." At the same time, the future poet received a good education - he studied at two Moscow gymnasiums (from 1885 to 1889 - at the private classical gymnasium of F.I. Kreiman (he was expelled for promoting atheistic ideas), in 1890-1893 - at the private gymnasium of L. I. Polivanova, the latter - an excellent teacher - had a significant influence on the young poet); in his last years at the gymnasium, Bryusov was fond of mathematics.
entry into literature. "Decadentism" of the 1890s
Already at the age of 13, Bryusov linked his future with poetry. Bryusov's earliest known poetic experiments date back to 1881; a little later his first (rather unskilful) stories appeared. While studying at the Kreyman gymnasium, Bryusov composed poetry and published a handwritten journal. In adolescence, Bryusov considered Nekrasov his literary idol, then he was fascinated by Nadson's poetry.
By the beginning of the 1890s, the time had come for Bryusov's passion for the works of the French Symbolists - Baudelaire, Verlaine, Mallarmé. “Acquaintance in the early 90s with the poetry of Verlaine and Mallarmé, and soon Baudelaire, opened up a new world for me. Under the impression of their work, those of my poems that first appeared in print were created, ”recalls Bryusov. In 1893, he wrote a letter (the first known to us) to Verlaine, in which he spoke of his mission to spread symbolism in Russia and presented himself as the founder of this new literary movement for Russia. Admiring Verlaine, Bryusov at the end of 1893 creates the drama “The Decadents. (End of the Century)", which tells about the short happiness of the famous French symbolist with Mathilde Mote and touches on Verlaine's relationship with Arthur Rimbaud.
In the 1890s, Bryusov wrote several articles on French poets. Between 1894 and 1895 he published (under the pseudonym Valery Maslov) three collections of Russian Symbolists, which included many of his own poems (including under various pseudonyms); most of them were written under the undoubted influence of the French symbolists; in addition to Bryusov's, the collections widely represented poems by A. A. Miropolsky (Lang), a friend of Bryusov, as well as A. Dobrolyubov, a mystic poet. In the third issue of "Russian Symbolists" Bryusov's one-line poem "O close your pale feet" was placed, which quickly gained fame, ensuring the rejection of criticism and the Homeric laughter of the public in relation to the collections. For a long time, the name of Bryusov, not only among the bourgeoisie, but also among the traditional, “professorial”, “ideological” intelligentsia, was associated precisely with this work - the “literary circle” (in the words of S. A. Vengerov). Vladimir Solovyov, who wrote a witty review of the collection for Vestnik Evropy, treated the first works of the Russian decadents with irony (Soloviev also owns several well-known parodies of the style of the Russian Symbolists). However, later Bryusov himself spoke of these first collections in the following way:
I remember these books
Like half asleep a recent day
We were bold, there were children,
Everything seemed bright to us.
Now in the soul and silence and shadow.
The first step is far
Five fleeting years are like five centuries.
- Collection "Tertia Vigilia", 1900
In 1893, Bryusov entered the Faculty of History and Philology of Moscow University, where, by the way, he studied with another well-known classmate, literary historian Vladimir Savodnik. His main interests in his student years were history, philosophy, literature, art, and languages. (“... If I could live a hundred lives, they would not satisfy all the thirst for knowledge that burns me,” the poet noted in his diary). In his youth, Bryusov was also fond of theater and performed on the stage of the Moscow German Club; here he met Natalya Alexandrovna Daruzes (she performed on stage under the surname Raevskaya), who soon became the poet's lover (Bryusov's first love, Elena Kraskova, died suddenly of smallpox in the spring of 1893; many of Bryusov's poems of 1892-1893 are dedicated to her); Daruzes Bryusov experienced love for "Tala" until 1895.
In 1895, the first collection of exclusively Bryusov's poems appeared - "Chefs d'oeuvre" ("Masterpieces"); The name of the collection itself caused attacks from the press, which, according to critics, did not correspond to the content of the collection (narcissism was characteristic of Bryusov in the 1890s; for example, in 1898 the poet wrote in his diary: “My youth is the youth of a genius. I lived and acted in such a way that only great deeds can justify my behavior. Moreover, in the preface to the collection, the author states: “Printing my book today, I do not expect it to be properly assessed either by critics or by the public. I do not bequeath this book to my contemporaries and not even to humanity, but to eternity and art. As for "Chefs d'oeuvre", and in general for Bryusov's early work, the theme of the struggle against the decrepit, obsolete world of the patriarchal merchant class, the desire to escape from "everyday reality" - to a new world, which was drawn to him in the works of French symbolists, is characteristic. The principle of "art for art's sake", detachment from the "outside world", characteristic of all Bryusov's lyrics, was already reflected in the poems of the collection "Chefs d'oeuvre". In this collection, Bryusov is generally a "lonely dreamer", cold and indifferent to people. Sometimes his desire to break away from the world comes to those of suicide, "the last verses." At the same time, Bryusov is constantly looking for new forms of verse, creates exotic rhymes, unusual images
In the poems of the collection one can feel the strong influence of Verlaine.
In the next collection - "Me eum esse" ("This is me", 1897), Bryusov progressed slightly compared to "Chefs d'oeuvre"; in "Me eum esse" we still see the author as a cold dreamer, detached from the "outside" world, dirty, insignificant, hated by the poet. Bryusov himself later called the period "Chefs d'oeuvre" and "Me eum esse" "decadent" (see also: #Selected quotes). The most famous poem is "Me eum esse" - "To a young poet"; it opens the collection.
In his youth, Bryusov was already developing the theory of symbolism: “The new direction in poetry is organically connected with the former ones. It’s just that new wine requires new skins,” he wrote in 1894 to the young poet F. E. Zarin (Talin).
After graduating from the university in 1899, Bryusov devoted himself entirely to literature. For several years he worked in P. I. Bartenev's magazine "Russian Archive".
In the second half of the 1890s, Bryusov became close with the symbolist poets, in particular, with K. D. Balmont (acquaintance with him dates back to 1894; it soon turned into friendship, which did not stop until Balmont’s emigration), became one of the initiators and the leaders of the Scorpion publishing house founded in 1899 by S. A. Polyakov, which united supporters of the “new art”.
In 1897, Bryusov married Joanna Runt. She was the companion and closest assistant of the poet until his death.
1900s
"Tertia Vigilia"
In 1900, the collection Tertia Vigilia (Third Guard) was published in Scorpio, which opened a new - "urban" stage in Bryusov's work. The collection is dedicated to K. D. Balmont, whom the author endowed with the “eye of a convict” and noted as follows: “But I love you - that you are all a lie.” A significant place in the collection is occupied by historical and mythological poetry; Bryusov's inspirations were, as noted by S. A. Vengerov, "the Scythians, the Assyrian king Esarhaddon, Ramesses II, Orpheus, Cassandra, Alexander the Great, Amalthea, Cleopatra, Dante, Bayazet, the Vikings, Ursa Major."
In later collections, mythological themes gradually fade away, giving way to the ideas of urbanism - Bryusov sings of the pace of life in a big city, its social contradictions, the urban landscape, even tram bells and dirty snow piled up in heaps. The poet from the "desert of loneliness" returns to the world of people; he seems to be regaining his "father's house"; the environment that nurtured him has been destroyed, and now shining cities of the present and future are growing in the place of “dark shops and barns” (“The dream of the prison will dissipate in the light, and the world will reach the predicted paradise”). One of the first Russian poets, Bryusov fully revealed the urban theme (although elements of "urban lyrics" can be found long before Bryusov - for example, in Pushkin's "The Bronze Horseman", in some poems by N. A. Nekrasov). Even poems about nature, of which there are few in the collection, sound “from the mouth of a city dweller” (“Electric Monthly Light”, etc.). The Third Watch also contains several translations of poems by Verhaern, whose admiration for his work followed admiration for the music and "fuzzy images" of Verlaine's poetry.
At this time, Bryusov was already preparing a whole book of translations of Verharn's lyrics - "Poems about Modernity." The poet is carried away not only by the growth of the city: he is excited by the very premonition of impending changes, the formation of a new culture - the culture of the City; the latter should become the "king of the universe" - and the poet is already bowing before him, ready to "throw into dust" in order to open "the path to victories." This is the key theme of the Tertia Vigilia collection.
A characteristic feature of Bryusov's poetics from this period is stylistic inclusiveness, encyclopedism and experimentation, he was a connoisseur of all types of poetry (he visits "K. K. Sluchevsky's Fridays"), a collector of "all tunes" (the title of one of his collections). He speaks about this in the preface to Tertia Vigilia: “I equally love the faithful reflections of the visible nature in Pushkin or Maikov, and the impulses to express the supersensible, the superearthly in Tyutchev or Fet, and the mental reflections of Baratynsky, and the passionate speeches of a civil poet, say, Nekrasov. Stylizations of a variety of poetic manners, Russian and foreign (up to “songs of Australian savages”) are Bryusov’s favorite pastime, he even prepared an anthology “Dreams of Humanity”, which is a stylization (or translations) of poetic styles of all eras. This feature of Bryusov's work evoked the most polarizing responses; its supporters (primarily symbolists, but also such acmeist students of Bryusov as Nikolai Gumilyov) saw in this the “Pushkin” trait, “proteism”, a sign of erudition and poetic power, critics (July Aikhenvald, Vladislav Khodasevich) criticized such stylizations as a sign "omnivorous", "heartlessness" and "cold experimentation".
"Urbi et Orbi"
Consciousness of loneliness, contempt for humanity, a premonition of inevitable oblivion (characteristic poems - “In the days of desolation” (1899), “Like otherworldly shadows” (1900)) are reflected in the collection “Urbi et Orbi” (“City and the world”), published in 1903; Bryusov is no longer inspired by synthetic images: more and more often the poet turns to the "civilian" theme. A classic example of civil lyrics (and perhaps the most famous in the collection) is the poem "The Mason". For himself, Bryusov chooses among all life paths "the path of labor, like a different path", in order to explore the secrets of "a wise and simple life." Interest in reality - knowing suffering and need - is expressed in the "urban folk" "chastushkas" presented in the "Songs" section. The "Songs" are written in a lifelike way, in a "popular" form; they attracted a lot of attention from critics, who, however, were mostly skeptical of these works, calling Bryusov's "pseudo-folk ditties" "falsification". The urban theme is more developed here than in Tertia Vigilia; the poet draws with separate strokes the life of a big city in all its manifestations: thus, we see the feelings of the worker (“And every night I regularly stand here under the window, and my heart is grateful that I see your icon lamp”), and the true experiences of the inhabitant “at home with red flashlight."
In a few poems, far-fetched self-adoration is visible (“And the virgins and young men stood up, meeting, crowning me like a king”), while in others - erotomania, voluptuousness (the section “Ballads” is largely filled with such poems). The theme of love receives a remarkable development in the section "Elegies"; love becomes a sacrament, a “religious sacrament” (see, for example, the poem “To Damascus”). If in all previous collections Bryusov took only timid steps along the path of New Poetry, then in the collection "Urbi et Orbi" he is a master who has already found his calling, determined his path; it was after the release of "Urbi et Orbi" that Bryusov became the recognized leader of Russian symbolism. The collection had a particularly great influence on the Young Symbolists - Alexander Blok, Andrei Bely, Sergei Solovyov.
The apotheosis of capitalist culture is the poem "The Bled Horse". In it, the reader is presented with a full of anxiety, intense life of the city. The city with its "roars" and "nonsense" erases the impending face of death, the end from its streets - and continues to live with the same furious, "noisy" tension.
Themes and moods in the work of this period
The great-power mood of the times of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 (the poems “To Fellow Citizens”, “To the Pacific Ocean”) were replaced by Bryusov’s period of belief in the inevitable death of the urban world, the decline of the arts, the onset of the “era of damage”. Bryusov sees in the future only the times of "last days", "last desolations". These sentiments reached their peak during the First Russian Revolution; they are clearly expressed in Bryusov's drama The Earth (1904, included in the collection The Earth's Axis), which describes the future death of all mankind; then - in the poem "The Coming Huns" (1905); in 1906, Bryusov wrote the short story "The Last Martyrs", describing the last days of the life of the Russian intelligentsia, participating in a crazy erotic orgy in the face of death. The mood of "Earth" (a work of "extremely high", according to Blok's definition) is on the whole pessimistic. The future of our planet is presented, the era of the completed capitalist world, where there is no connection with the earth, with the expanses of nature, and where humanity is steadily degenerating under the "artificial light" of the "world of machines". The only way out for humanity in the current situation is collective suicide, which is the finale of the drama. Despite the tragic ending, the play occasionally still contains hopeful notes; so, in the final scene, a young man who believes in the "rebirth of mankind" and in the New Life appears; according to it, only true humanity is entrusted with the life of the earth, and people who decide to die a “proud death” are only an “unfortunate crowd” lost in life, a branch torn from their tree. However, decadent moods only intensified in the subsequent years of the poet's life. Periods of complete dispassion are replaced by Bryusov’s lyrics of unquenched painful passions (“I love in the eyes of those swollen”, 1899; “In a gambling house”, 1905; “In a brothel”, 1905, and many others).
«Στεφανος»
Bryusov's next collection was "Στεφανος" ("Wreath"), written during the most violent revolutionary events of 1905 (released in December 1905); the poet himself considered him the pinnacle of his poetic creativity (““ Wreath ” completed my poetry, put on it truly a“ wreath ”,” writes Bryusov). Bryusov's civic lyrics flourish brightly in it, which began to appear in the Urbi et Orbi collection. Only the cycles "Driven from Hell" and "Moments" are dedicated to love. Bryusov sings a “hymn of glory” to the “coming Huns”, knowing full well that they are going to destroy the culture of the contemporary world, that this world is doomed and that he, the poet, is its inseparable part. Bryusov, who came from the Russian peasantry, who was under the "master's yoke", was well acquainted with rural life. Peasant images appear even in the early - "decadent" - period of Bryusov's lyrics. Throughout the 1890s, the poet turned to the "peasant" theme more and more often. And even during the period of worship of the city, Bryusov sometimes has the motive of "escape" from the noisy streets to the bosom of nature. A person is free only in nature - in the city he only feels like a prisoner, a “slave of stones” and dreams of the future destruction of cities, the onset of “wild will”. According to Bryusov, the revolution was inevitable. “Oh, it’s not the Chinese who are beaten in Tianjin who will come, but those who are more terrible, trampled down in mines and squeezed into factories ... I call them, because they are inevitable,” the poet writes to four Symbolists in 1900, after Vladimir Solovyov’s “Three Conversations” . The divergence of views on the revolution among the symbolists thus began already at the turn of the century. Bryusov himself feels himself a slave to bourgeois culture, the culture of the city, and his own cultural construction is the construction of the same prison that is presented in the poem "The Mason". Similar in spirit to "The Bricklayer" and the poem "Rowers of the Trireme" (1905). The poems "Dagger" (1903), "Satisfied" (1905) - poems of the "songwriter" of the growing revolution, ready to meet its overthrow with a "welcome anthem".
Leader of symbolism
The organizational role of Bryusov in Russian symbolism and in general in Russian modernism is very significant. The Libra, headed by him, became the most thorough in the selection of material and an authoritative modernist magazine (opposing the eclectic and not having a clear program of the Pass and the Golden Fleece). Bryusov influenced the work of many younger poets with advice and criticism, almost all of them go through the stage of one or another “imitation of Bryusov”. He enjoyed great prestige both among his peers-symbolists and among literary youth, had a reputation as a strict impeccable "master", creating poetry as a "magician", "priest" of culture, and among acmeists (Nikolai Gumilyov, Zenkevich, Mandelstam), and futurists ( Pasternak, Shershenevich and others). Literary critic Mikhail Gasparov assesses the role of Bryusov in Russian modernist culture as the role of a "defeated teacher of victorious students" who influenced the work of an entire generation. Bryusov was not without a feeling of "jealousy" for the new generation of symbolists (see the poem "The Younger": "They see her! They hear her! ...", 1903).
Bryusov also took an active part in the life of the Moscow literary and artistic circle, in particular, he was its director (since 1908). Collaborated in the journal "New Way" (in 1903, he became editorial secretary).
1910s
The Scales magazine ceases publication in 1909; by 1910 the activity of Russian symbolism as a movement was declining. In this regard, Bryusov ceases to act as a figure in the literary struggle and the leader of a particular direction, taking a more balanced, "academic" position. From the beginning of the 1910s, he paid considerable attention to prose (the novel The Altar of Victory), criticism (work in Russkaya Mysl, the journal Art in Southern Russia), and Pushkin studies. In 1913, the poet experiences a personal tragedy caused by a painful romance for both with the young poetess Nadezhda Lvova and her suicide. In 1914, with the outbreak of World War I, Bryusov went to the front as a war correspondent for Russkiye Vedomosti. It should be noted the growth of patriotic sentiments in the lyrics of Bryusov in 1914-1916.
1910-1914 and, in particular, 1914-1916, many researchers consider the period of spiritual and, as a result, creative crisis of the poet. Already the collections of the late 1900s - "The Earth's Axis" (a prose collection of stories, 1907), "All the Melodies" (1909) - were criticized as weaker than "Stephanos", they basically repeat the former "tunics"; thoughts about the frailty of all things intensify, the poet’s spiritual fatigue manifests itself (poems “The Dying Bonfire”, 1908; “The Demon of Suicide”, 1910). In the collections “Mirror of Shadows” (1912), “Seven Colors of the Rainbow” (1916), the author’s calls to oneself to “continue”, “swim further”, etc., which betray this crisis, become frequent, occasionally images of a hero, a worker appear. In 1916, Bryusov published a stylized continuation of Pushkin's poem "Egyptian Nights", which caused an extremely mixed reaction from critics. Reviews of 1916-1917 (who wrote under the pseudonym Andrey Polyanin Sofia Parnok, Georgy Ivanov, etc.) note self-repetitions, breakdowns in poetic technique and taste, hyperbolic self-praise (“Monument”, etc.) in “Seven Colors of the Rainbow”, come to the conclusion about the exhaustion of Bryusov's talent.
With an attempt to get out of the crisis and find a new style, researchers of Bryusov's work associate such an interesting experiment of the poet as a literary hoax - the collection "Nelli's Poems" (1913) dedicated to Nadezhda Lvova and the "Nelli's New Poems" (1914-1916) that continued it (1914-1916, remained unpublished under author's life). These poems are written on behalf of a “chic” urban courtesan, carried away by fashion trends, a kind of female counterpart of the lyrical hero Igor Severyanin, poetics reveals - along with the characteristic signs of Bryusov's style, thanks to which the hoax was soon exposed - the influence of Severyanin and futurism, to which Bryusov refers with interest.
Bryusov and the revolution
In 1917, the poet defended Maxim Gorky, who was criticized by the Provisional Government.
After the October Revolution of 1917, Bryusov actively participated in the literary and publishing life of Moscow, worked in various Soviet institutions. The poet was still faithful to his desire to be the first in any business started. From 1917 to 1919 he headed the Committee for the Registration of the Press (since January 1918 - the Moscow branch of the Russian Book Chamber); from 1918 to 1919 he was in charge of the Moscow Library Department under the People's Commissariat of Education;. from 1919 to 1921 he was chairman of the Presidium of the All-Russian Union of Poets (as such, he led poetry evenings of Moscow poets of various groups at the Polytechnic Museum). In 1919 Bryusov became a member of the RCP(b). He worked at the State Publishing House, headed the literary sub-department of the Department of Art Education at the People's Commissariat for Education, was a member of the State Academic Council, a professor at Moscow State University (since 1921); from the end of 1922 - head of the Department of Art Education of the Glavprofobra; in 1921 he organized the Higher Literary and Art Institute (VLHI) and remained its rector and professor until the end of his life. Bryusov was also a member of the Moscow Council. He took an active part in the preparation of the first edition of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia (he was the editor of the department of literature, art and linguistics; the first volume was published after the death of Bryusov).
In 1923, in connection with the fiftieth anniversary, Bryusov received a letter from the Soviet government, which noted the poet's numerous merits "to the whole country" and expressed "gratitude from the workers' and peasants' government."
Late creativity
After the revolution, Bryusov continued his active creative activity. In October, the poet saw the banner of a new, transformed world, capable of destroying bourgeois-capitalist culture, the "slave" of which the poet considered himself earlier; now he can "resurrect life." Some post-revolutionary poems are enthusiastic hymns to "dazzling October"; in some of his poems, he glorifies the revolution in one voice with Marxist poets (see, for example, the poems of the collection “On Such Days” (1923) - in particular, “Work”, “Responses”, “To the Brothers-Intellectuals”, “Only Russian "). Having become the ancestor of the “Russian literary Leniniana”, Bryusov neglected the “precepts” set forth by himself back in 1896 in the poem “To the Young Poet” - “do not live in the present”, “worship art”.
Despite all his aspirations to become part of the new era, Bryusov could not become a “poet of the New Life”. In the 1920s (in the collections "Dali" (1922), "Mea" ("Hurry!", 1924)) he radically renews his poetics, using rhythm overloaded with accents, abundant alliteration, ragged syntax, neologisms (again, as in the era of Nelly's Poems, using the experience of futurism); Vladislav Khodasevich, who is generally critical of Bryusov, not without sympathy evaluates this period as an attempt to find “new sounds” through “conscious cacophony”. These poems are saturated with social motives, the pathos of "scientific" (in the spirit of Rene Gil's "scientific poetry", which Bryusov was interested in even before the revolution: "The World of the Electron", 1922, "The World of N-Dimensions", 1924), exotic terms and proper names ( the author provided many of them with detailed comments). M. L. Gasparov, who studied it in detail, called the manner of the late Bryusov “academic avant-garde”. In some texts, notes of disappointment with one's past and present life, even with the revolution itself, appear (the poem "House of Visions" is especially characteristic). In his experiment, Bryusov was alone: in the era of building a new, Soviet poetry, Bryusov's experiments were considered too complex and "incomprehensible to the masses"; representatives of modernist poetics also reacted negatively to them.
Death
On October 9, 1924, Bryusov died in his Moscow apartment from lobar pneumonia. The poet was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery in the capital.
The main features of Bryusov's work
In Bryusov's poems, the reader is faced with opposite principles: life-affirming - love, calls for "conquest" of life by labor, for the struggle for existence, for creation - and pessimistic (death is bliss, "sweet nirvana", therefore the desire for death is above all; suicide is "seductive", and insane orgies are "the secret pleasures of artificial edens"). And the main character in Bryusov's poetry is either a brave, courageous fighter, or a man who despairs of life, who sees no other way but the way to death (such, in particular, are the already mentioned "Nellie's Poems", the work of a courtesan with a "selfish soul ").
Bryusov's moods are sometimes contradictory; they replace each other without transitions. In his poetry, Bryusov either strives for innovation, or again goes back to the time-tested forms of the classics. Despite the desire for classical forms, Bryusov's work is still not an empire style, but a modernist style that has absorbed contradictory qualities. In it, we see a fusion of qualities that are difficult to combine. According to Andrei Bely's characterization, Valery Bryusov is a "poet of marble and bronze"; at the same time, S. A. Vengerov considered Bryusov a poet of "solemnity par excellence." According to L. Kamenev, Bryusov is a "hammer fighter and jeweler."
Bryusov's versification
Valery Bryusov made a great contribution to the development of the form of verse, actively used inaccurate rhymes, "free verse" in the spirit of Verhaarn, developed "long" meters (iambic 12-foot with internal rhymes: "Near the sluggish Nile, where Lake Merida is, in the kingdom fiery Ra
you have loved me for a long time, like Osiris Isis, friend, queen and sister ... ”, the famous 7-foot trochee without caesura in“ Pale Horse ”:“ The street was like a storm. The crowds passed
As if they were pursued by the inevitable Rock…”), used alternating lines of different meters (the so-called “lowercase logaeds”: “My lips are approaching
to your lips..."). These experiments were fruitfully received by the younger poets. In the 1890s, in parallel with Zinaida, Gippius Bryusov developed tonic verse (dolnik is a term that he introduced into Russian poetry in an article of 1918), but, unlike Gippius and subsequently Blok, he gave few memorable examples to this verse in the future. rarely addressed: the most famous dolniks of Bryusov are The Coming Huns (1904) and The Third Autumn (1920). In 1918, Bryusov published the collection "Experiments ...", which did not set creative tasks and was specially dedicated to the most diverse experiments in the field of verse (extra-long line endings, figured poetry, etc.). In the 1920s, Bryusov taught versification at various institutes, some of his courses were published.
Bryusov in different genres
Bryusov tried his hand at many literary genres.
Prose
The most famous historical novels by Bryusov are The Altar of Victory, which describes the life and customs of Rome in the 4th century AD. e., and - in particular - the "Fiery Angel". In the latter, the psychology of the time being described (Germany of the 16th century) is superbly displayed, the mood of the era is accurately conveyed; based on the "Fiery Angel" Sergei Prokofiev wrote the opera of the same name. The motives of Bryusov's novels fully correspond to the motives of the author's poetic works; Like poetry, Bryusov's novels describe the era of the collapse of the old world, depict its individual representatives who paused in thought before the arrival of the new world, supported by fresh, revitalizing forces.
Bryusov's original short stories, built on the principle of two worlds, were compiled in the collection The Earth's Axis (1907). In the short story cycle "Nights and Days" Bryusov gives himself up to the "philosophy of the moment", the "religion of passion". Bryusov also wrote fantastic works - this is the novel "Mountain of the Stars", the stories "The Rise of the Machines" (1908) and "The Mutiny of the Machines" (1914), the story "The First Interplanetary", the dystopia "Republic of the Southern Cross" (1904-05). Noteworthy is the story "The Betrothal of Dasha", in which the author portrays his father, Yakov Bryusov, who was involved in the liberal social movement of the 1860s. The story "The Last Pages from a Woman's Diary" also received considerable attention from critics.
Translations
As a translator, Bryusov did a lot for Russian literature. He opened to the Russian reader the work of the famous Belgian urban poet Emile Verhaern, was the first translator of the poems of Paul Verlaine. Known are Bryusov's translations of works by Edgar Allan Poe (poems), Romain Rolland ("Liliuli"), Maurice Maeterlinck ("Pelleas and Melesande", "Massacre of the Innocents"), Victor Hugo, Racine, Ausonius, Molière ("Amphitryon"), Byron, Oscar Wilde ("The Duchess of Padua", "The Ballad of Reading Gaol"). Bryusov completely translated Goethe's Faust and Virgil's Aeneid. In the 1910s, Bryusov was fascinated by the poetry of Armenia, translated many poems by Armenian poets and compiled the fundamental collection "Poetry of Armenia from ancient times to the present day", for which he was awarded the title of People's Poet of Armenia in 1923, Yerevan Linguistic University bears his name.
Bryusov was a translation theorist; some of his ideas are still relevant today (see, for example, the preface to Verlaine's translations (1911), the review "Verhaarn on a Procrustean bed" (1923), etc.).
Criticism and literary criticism
As a literary critic, Valery Bryusov began to speak as early as 1893, when he selected poems by novice poets (the same, however, as he himself) for the first collection, Russian Symbolists. The most complete collection of Bryusov's critical articles is Far and Near. In his critical articles, Bryusov not only revealed the theory of symbolism, but also made statements about the dependence of form on content in literature; Poetry, according to Bryusov, "can and should" be learned, because it is a craft that has an important educational value. According to Bryusov, separation from reality is fatal for the artist. Bryusov's works on versification are interesting ("Fundamentals of versification", etc.). Bryusov was sympathetic to the work of proletarian poets, which is expressed in his articles "Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow of Russian Poetry", "Synthetics of Poetry".
Of Bryusov's literary works, the most famous are his works devoted to the biography and work of Alexander Pushkin (works on Pushkin's versification, "Pushkin's Letters to Pushkin", "Pushkin in the Crimea", "Pushkin's Relations with the Government", "Pushkin's Lyceum Poems". In the latter The work contains newly discovered and restored texts by Pushkin the lyceum student). Several articles ("Pushkin and serfdom", an article on Pushkin's poetic technique, etc.) were written by Bryusov for the collected works of the great Russian poet (Brockhaus edition). Bryusov studied the work of Nikolai Gogol (which was expressed in his speech “Incinerated”), Baratynsky, Fyodor Tyutchev (Bryusov actually opened the work of this talented poet to Russian society), Alexei Tolstoy.
Bryusov-journalist
Bryusov began his journalistic career in the journal, far from literary storms - "Russian Archive", where from the end of the 1890s he went through the school of scientific publishing under the guidance of a prominent historian and editor of the journal Bartenev, and from 1900 to 1903 he was secretary of the editorial board of the journal. Published in Yasinsky's Monthly Works (1900-1902).
Later, Bryusov became the main character in the journal Scales (1904-1909), the main organ of Russian symbolism. Bryusov put all his energy into editorial work. Bryusov was both the principal author and editor of Vyesov. In addition to him, Andrey Bely, Konstantin Balmont, Vyacheslav Ivanov, Maximilian Voloshin, Mikhail Kuzmin were published there. Bryusov also directed the publishing house "Scorpion" and participated in the publication of the almanac of this publishing house "Northern Flowers" (published in 1901-1903, 1905 and 1911).
The experience of Bryusov as an editor was taken into account by Struve when he invited the poet to edit the literary department of the oldest Moscow magazine Russkaya Mysl in 1910. Bryusov saw his mission as a literary editor in the continuation of the traditions of Libra. Soon, Bryusov, in addition to fiction, began to oversee the bibliography and criticism of the magazine. With the advent of a new literary editor, Alexei Tolstoy, Andrei Bely, Alexander Blok, Alexander Grin, Alexei Remizov, Anna Akhmatova, Nikolai Gumilyov appeared on the pages of the magazine. Contemporaries were ironic that Struve's monthly was published as if it were "anniversary issues of Russian symbolism." However, friction soon emerged between Struve and Bryusov: the December 1910 issue of Russian Thought was arrested for pornography. The reason is Bryusov's story "The Last Pages from a Woman's Diary". The end of Bryusov's editorship took place at the end of 1912. One of the reasons was Struve's refusal to publish Andrei Bely's novel Petersburg, who considered the novel a creative failure - Bryusov insisted on printing the novel. Bryusov remains an employee of the magazine as a critic until 1914.
In 1915, Maxim Gorky invited Bryusov to collaborate in the newly opened Chronicle magazine.
Bryusov-editor
Bryusov was engaged in editorial activities - under his control, the collected works of Karolina Pavlova, several editions of Pushkin's works were published. He began editing the complete works of Pushkin (the work, which ended on the first volume, included the addition of unfinished works).
Selected Quotes
Talent, even genius, will honestly give only slow success if given it. It is not enough! It is not enough for me. We must choose otherwise ... Find a guiding star in the fog. And I see it: it's decadent. Yes! Whatever you say, whether it is false, whether it is ridiculous, but it goes forward, develops, and the future will belong to it, especially when it finds a worthy leader. And I will be the leader! Yes I! (March 4, 1893, diary).
My youth is the youth of a genius. I have lived and acted in such a way that only great deeds can justify my behavior. (Ibid., 1898).
Brother - Alexander (1885-1966) - professor of art history, employee of the Historical Museum, participant in the search for the Amber Room.
Sister - Lydia - the wife of the poet Samuil Kissin.
Sister - Nadezhda (1881-1951) - musicologist-folklorist, teacher (from 1921 to 1943) and vice-rector (1922-28) of the Moscow State Conservatory.
In the early 1910s, Bryusov, Vyach. Ivanov, Andrei Bely and A. S. Petrovsky made up the ephemeral Masonic lodge Lucifer, established by the so-called. "Moscow center" (presumably, the Rosicrucian chapter / Astrea /) and abolished immediately after its foundation for its connection with anthroposophists. Probably, this kind of phenomena cannot be fully regarded as an indicator of the affiliation of these cultural figures to the movement of free masons, however, this fact is captured in the annals of such a movement.
In 1924, shortly before his death, Valery Bryusov posed for the young sculptor Nina Niss-Goldman. Now this portrait is in the Russian Museum of St. Petersburg in the collection of the Russian avant-garde of the 1920s.
Bryusov Valery Yakovlevich (1873-1924) - a famous Russian poet, prose writer and playwright, the brightest representative and founder of symbolism. He was remembered by many as a "prophet" and "magician", a legislator of the tastes of Russian symbolism, often appearing in public in a fully buttoned black frock coat.
His literary activity is of great scope. Journalist, critic, publisher, researcher of verse, organizer and inspirer of literary life - this is not a complete list of his life passions and hobbies. But his main path is poetry. Many of Bryusov's poems are imbued with inner wanderings and an indefatigable desire to move forward, against fate.
Early biography
Valery Bryusov was born on December 1 (13), 1873 in Moscow. His father was a fairly successful merchant. The parents of the future poet, Matrena Alexandrovna and Yakov Kuzmich, were fascinated by the ideas of rationalism, which actively made its way in the liberal times of Alexander II. From early childhood, Valera was surrounded by care and attention, and books played an important role in his upbringing and development as a person. Moreover, their orientation was of a pronounced materialistic nature, therefore, from an early age, Bryusov was familiar with Darwin's theory, the biographies of Kepler and Livingston, as well as the poems of N. Nekrasov. Thanks to this, he had a well-developed inquisitiveness and curiosity.
At the age of 11, Valery was sent to study immediately in the second grade of the private gymnasium F. Kreiman. But against the background of many peers, he looked like a real black sheep, distinguished by the broadest outlook, excellent memory and thinking. Bryusov's interests were quite versatile: the boy's favorite subjects, along with literature, were philosophy and astronomy. From the age of 13, he became interested in literary creativity and began to write books. Over time, Valery had his own circle of friends, and the young man was able to break with loneliness.
Student years and pen test
In 1892, Bryusov entered the Faculty of History and Philology of Moscow University, where he seriously studied literature, art, ancient languages, and history. At this time, he enthusiastically reads the poems of the French symbolists Verlaine, Malarme, Rambo, who had a significant impact on his work.
In 1894-1895, Valery prepared three poetry collections entitled "Russian Symbolists", published in the form of three thin pamphlets. They became a kind of manifesto of domestic symbolists who showed their poetic face. Later, Bryusov sadly recalled that "he became the hero of small newspapers and ... lively feuilletonists." Indeed, only the lazy did not go through the poems published in the collection with criticism. From the very beginning, he was shrouded in a halo of mystification - formally, the publisher of the works was a certain Vladimir Maslov, who in fact never existed. The basis of the "Russian Symbolists" was the works of Bryusov himself, which he signed with various pseudonyms (Darov, Sozontov, Fuchs and others). The author, with a force worthy of respect, defended symbolism and always tried to defend its principles in heated debates.
In 1895, Bryusov published a new collection, Masterpieces, in which he presented his own poems to the readers. Such a name seriously confused many critics, because not everyone dares to call their first works with such a big name. Bryusov's poetry struck with its unusualness, bordering on provocation. His unusual images fully emphasized the bright individualism and subjectivism of the author. Two years later, the author's new book "This is me" was published. There are already clearly visible signs of the mature poetry of Valery Yakovlevich with his interest in urbanism and science. In addition, Bryusov demonstrates the principle of "art for art's sake", which manifested itself in a certain loftiness of the poet above the realities and the desire to break away from the world. In one of his poems he wrote:
Shadow of Uncreated Creatures
Swaying in a dream
Like the blades of flying
On the enamel wall
Symbolist poet
In 1899, Bryusov graduated from the university and plunged headlong into the creative process. He gets a job at the Russian Archive magazine, where he will work as editorial secretary for about two years. Soon the owner of the textile enterprise S.A. Polyakov, fascinated by symbolism, founded the Scorpio publishing house, which quickly united the creators of the "new art" on its platform. Among its leaders was “Valery Yakovlevich. It published their books, as well as the almanac "Northern Messenger". Among the published works, Scorpio published a number of Bryusov's collections, including Mirror of Shadows, Ways and Crossroads.
The publishing activity of the poet will continue at the beginning of the 20th century, when he took part in the creation of the symbolist almanac "Northern Flowers". It published both many famous authors of that era and representatives of Russian classics. This emphasized the continuity between classical literature and new art. Nevertheless, over time, a separation of the subject of publications towards the poetry of symbolism began to be observed. The Northern Flowers paved the way for the birth of their own symbolist magazine, Libra (1904). For 5 years until 1909, Bryusov will work on editing it.
Engaged in editing and publishing activities with enthusiasm, the poet does not forget about creativity. It was at the beginning of the 20th century that he wrote one of the most powerful collections of "City of Peace" and "Wreath". In the first, the author, anticipating the urbanism of V. Mayakovsky, sends praise and curses to the capitalist city. The usual sharp forms and sharp metaphors of Bryusov prophesied about the near future and found a warm response from readers.
You oppress the slaves of the gloomy back
To frenzied and light
Rotary machines
Forged sharp blades!
The theme of the modern city in Bryusov's poetry is closely intertwined with the fate of mankind, with an analysis of the past and anticipation of the future. It was there, ahead, that he saw the social and cultural prospects of society. In 1900, the third book of the poet, The Third Guard, was published, after which he began to be called a poet with a capital letter. It was dedicated to a colleague and like-minded person K. Balmont. The main outline of the collection is composed of poems on historical and mythological topics, in which the author mentions the names of Dante, Orpheus, Cleopatra. The sonnet “To the Portrait of Leibniz” is filled with special reverence, in which Bryusov pays tribute to his beloved scientist.
In the period 1900-1915, three poetry collections came out from the poet's pen: "Seven Colors of the Rainbow", "All Melodies" and "Mirror of Shadows", in which critics found repetitions of himself, at the same time noting a simpler and more understandable poetic language author.
A poet in Russia is more than a poet
At this time, the first prose of Bryusov appears. He writes a series of stories "The Earth's Axis", where he invites the reader through the prism of the characters of his characters to help him feel a certain earthly axis that pierces life and is an abstract harmony of this contradictory world. In 1908, Valery Yakovlevich presents the novel "The Fiery Angel", recognized as one of the most mysterious works of its time. It intertwines the poet's autobiography with mystical motives and history. Bryusov draws analogies between the existence of occult sinners, doomed to martyrdom in the process of searching for new knowledge, and the fate of contemporary society.
In 1909, Bryusov seriously turned to the work of N. Gogol, conducting a study of his works for the presence and disclosure of fantastic themes. He presented his work “Incinerated: On the Characteristics of Gogol” in the form of a report that was read at a meeting of the Society of Russian Literature Lovers.
Bryusov is known in wide circles as a talented translator. Especially for the theater of V. Komissarzhevskaya, he presented Russian-language versions of many works, including Amphitryon by Molière, Lilyuli by R. Rolland, Helena of Sparta by E. Verhaarn, Duchess of Padua by O. Wilde and others. In his collection there are translations of works by Goethe, Maeterlinck, Byron, Poe. During World War I, Valery Yakovlevich went to the front, where he worked as a correspondent for one of the St. Petersburg publications Russkiye Vedomosti. In 1917, Bryusov tries himself in the field of liberal journalism. Immediately after the abdication of Nicholas II, he writes an article "On the new Russian anthem", in which he calls for the creation of a solemn song. “We need a short song that ... with the magic of art would unite all those gathered in one impulse”- wrote the poet.
In alliance with the new government
Unlike many artists, Bryusov recognized Soviet power and even joined the ranks of the Communist Party. This position allowed him to hold a number of important positions. So, in the period 1917-1919, he headed the Committee for the Registration of the Press, headed the Moscow Library Department, and then worked at the State Publishing House. He was the organizer, rector and professor of the Higher Literary and Art Institute, which later received his name. The poet participated in the work on the first edition of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia as an editor of the literary department.
For all the ups and downs of public service, Valery Yakovlevich did not forget about creativity. In 1923-1924, his last two collections, Dali and Mea, were published, in which a completely different Valery Bryusov appears before the reader. In his poems, he uses ragged syntax, futuristic constructions for adding poetic lines, and a lot of alliterations, which made it possible to call this style "academic avant-gardism." He also writes futurological plays Dictator and The World of Seven Generations, unpublished during his lifetime. Valery Bryusov died of pneumonia in Moscow on October 9, 1924.
Personal life
As a truly creative person, Bryusov often looked for inspiration in communicating with the opposite sex. The legal wife of the poet was the usual governess John Runt, whom he loved to madness, which did not prevent her from periodically cheating. She never left heirs, as she had a miscarriage during pregnancy. Later, Bryusov had stormy romances with the poetess N. Petrovskaya, the former lover of A. Bely and N. Lvova, who tragically passed away after a break with the poet.
Russian Literature of the Silver Age
Valery Yakovlevich Bryusov
Biography
BRYUSOV Valery Yakovlevich (1873 - 1924), poet, prose writer, literary theorist, translator.
Born on December 1 (13 n.s.) in Moscow in a wealthy merchant family. The father of the future poet raised his son in the spirit of the progressive ideas of the sixties. Bryusov recalled: “Portraits of Chernyshevsky and Pisarev hung over my father’s table. I was brought up ... in the principles of materialism and atheism. A particularly revered poet in the family was N. Nekrasov.
He studied at the Moscow private gymnasium F. Kreiman, then moved to the gymnasium of the famous teacher L. Polivanov, who had a noticeable influence on the future poet. Already at the age of thirteen, Bryusov decides to become a writer. The circle of interests of the schoolboy Bryusov is literature, history, philosophy, astronomy. Entering Moscow University in 1892 at the historical department of the Faculty of History and Philology, he studied history, philosophy, literature, art, and languages (ancient and modern) in depth.
At the end of 1892, the young Bryusov got acquainted with the poetry of French symbolism - Verlaine, Rambo, Malarme - which had a great influence on his future work. In 1894 - 95 he compiled small collections "Russian Symbolists", most of which were written by Bryusov himself. Some of these verses spoke of the author's talent.
In 1895 he published the book "Masterpieces", in 1897 - the book "This is me" about the world of subjective decadent experiences that proclaimed egocentrism. In 1899, after graduating from the university, he completely devoted himself to literary activity. For two years he worked as the secretary of the editorial office of the Russian Archive magazine. After organizing the publishing house "Scorpion", which began to publish "new literature" (works of modernists), Bryusov takes an active part in organizing almanacs and the magazine "Balance" (1904 - 09), the best magazine of Russian symbolism.
In 1900, the book "The Third Guard" was published, after which Bryusov received recognition as a great poet. In 1903 he published the book "City and the World", in 1906 - "Wreath", his best poetic books.
In subsequent years, Bryusov's poetry becomes more chamber, new features of his lyrics appear: intimacy, sincerity, simplicity in expressing thoughts and feelings (collection All Melodies, 1909; book Mirror of Shadows, 1912).
During the First World War, Bryusov was at the front as a correspondent for one of the St. Petersburg newspapers, wrote patriotic poems, but soon returned from the front, realizing the senselessness of this war for Russia.
Bryusov accepted the October Revolution and placed his talent as an organizer of a new culture at its service. His activities in this direction were energetic and diverse. Poetic creativity was also very intense and productive: in the early 1920s he published five books of new poems, among which the best was On Such Days (1921). Known as an outstanding translator, a special place is occupied by translations of Armenian poetry and Verhaarn's poems. Bryusov did a lot in the study of the Russian language, made a significant contribution to the study of the works of Pushkin, Fet, Gogol, Blok, and others. , conducted seminars on the history of the Ancient East, etc. M. Gorky called Bryusov "the most cultured writer in Russia." On October 9, 1924, before reaching the age of 51, Bryusov died in Moscow.
"COMING FROM THE DUSK TO THE LIGHT..."
(On the creative path of Bryusov the poet)
Strict skill is important in art.
Break the souls of the deadly captivity
And go out on a fiery road
To the stream of eternal change.
V. Bryusov
The literary activity of Valery Bryusov is striking in its versatility. He is known as the author of stories and novels, playwright, translator, art theorist, literary historian and literary critic, researcher of verse, journalist, editor, teacher, organizer of literary
Life ... But in the minds of contemporaries and subsequent generations, he was and remained primarily a poet. Indeed, the most important and significant in
The extensive literary heritage of Bryusov is his poetic work.
Reading Bryusov's poems, one cannot help but pay attention to the motif persistently repeated from collection to collection, from year to year - the image of the path, the traveler, wandering off-road or relentless forward movement, difficult ascent.
Already in the poems of the early period, in the 90s, such confessions and auto-characteristics are constantly encountered:
We are travelers of the starless night,
Seekers of a vague paradise. (1895)
Or calls like this:
And here are the lines from the 900s:
All stone steps
Everything is steeper, steeper rise. (1902)
And in the 1910s, on the eve of great historical events, again:
I don't know, but I'm going; I throw my torch aloft;
I kick the steps; my spirit is intoxicated by the ascent. (1914)
And finally, after October again:
I'll go, I'm glad to the unexpected thunders,
Catching all the moments and not complaining,
Throw the faded hour back. (1921)
The number of such citations can be multiplied many times over.
This path, about which the poet constantly speaks, was not simple and difficult, it was replete with numerous twists and turns, ups and downs.
Whence and where did he lead?
Valery Yakovlevich Bryusov was born in 1873 in Moscow into a merchant family that had its origins in the serfs, and the middle
Her generation was already affected by the progressive democratic and scientific-materialist ideas of the 1960s. But the 60s were already in the past.
Bryusov's adolescence falls on the gloomy 80s, and youth - at the beginning of the 90s. The poet himself subsequently described the era in this way when his
Conscious life and his views were formed:
I grew up in a deaf time, When the whole world was deaf and quiet. And it seemed to people to live in a burden, And hearing did not need a verse.
It was a time of severe political reaction, the degeneration and crushing of the traditions of the liberation movement, disappointment in them, the disappearance
Interest in social issues among a significant part of the intelligentsia, the spread of the theory of "small deeds", the growth of philistine sentiments. Of course,
In the depths of society, new social forces were already awakening and taking shape, the transition to a new, proletarian stage of the revolutionary movement was being prepared,
However, young Bryusov, like most people in his environment, was far from those social strata, had not yet seen these processes.
Let us pay attention to the fact that the quoted lines of the poet speak not only of political, but also of literary timelessness. If you turn to
The poetry of those years, we will see that it really experienced a clear decline, ideological impoverishment. In the verses of the overwhelming majority of poets,
Smallness, banality, dull epigonism, a sluggish, inexpressive form that can only discredit any public content.
In such a social and literary environment, Bryusov's poetic activity began.
His early poems were largely generated by this time. They were stamped by the stuffy atmosphere of the then bourgeois-intellectual environment,
Deprived of real civic ideals and interests, big ideas and aspirations. Hence the extreme individualism and egocentrism reflected in
In these verses, apoliticality, defiant disregard for social topics.
“I am alien to the anxieties of the universe,” the poet frankly declared. And in another poem he confessed: “I do not know other obligations, / Except
Virgin faith in yourself.
At the same time, the young Bryusov was characterized by the desire to somehow push off from his environment with its dull life, with its stereotyped
Morality, with its formulaic art, devoid of brightness and courage. The aspiring poet wanted to find some new ways, felt the need to say
Some new word. The first steps in this direction prompted him
The then foreign literature.
At that time in the West, and above all in France, a new trend in the field of poetry was taking shape and developing, which became known under
The name of symbolism or decadence (from the French word decadent - decadent), since its representatives expressed mainly minor
The mood of a tired soul, weary of the encounter with rough, prosaic reality. Poems of these poets (P. Verlaine, S. Mallarme and others)
They made a strong impression on the young Bryusov with novelty, unusual artistic means, the ability to subtly convey different shades of complex and
Contradictory experiences of modern man.
Fascinated by such examples, Bryusov plans to become the leader and organizer of the "new poetry" in Russia. In 1894-1895 he produced three
Small collections called "Russian Symbolists", filling them mainly with his own poems and under his own name and under various
Aliases. These collections, which were supposed to demonstrate the emergence of a new school of poetry in Russia, were soon followed by
Personal collections of the young poet with pretentious foreign titles: "Chefs d'oeuvre" ("Masterpieces", 1895) and "Me eum esse" ("This is me",
What characterized this early period of Bryusov's work? most clearly its poetic platform, its then aesthetic
Bryusov formulates the position in the well-known poem "To the Young Poet", which contains three appeals: "do not sympathize with anyone", "do not live in the present",
"worship art, only him, thoughtlessly, aimlessly." The stanzas of this work acquired the meaning of a manifesto of decadent poetry with its
Ultra-individualism, isolation from public life, with its outright amoralism and rejection of humanistic principles, with its cult
Self-sustaining art.
Departing from unsightly reality, the poet plunges either into the world of obscure visions and fruitless fantasies, or into the stuffy sphere of some kind of broken
And painful experiences, then into geographical and historical exoticism. In his poems at every step there are unusual, bizarre images. So, a poem about Moscow begins with the line: “Moscow is slumbering like a female sleeping ostrich”, and a poem about love with the words: “My love is a scorching
I remember: in the early silence I praised the burning noon of Java, The dream of lush lilies
On the wave, Trunks to which boas cling, Herbs unknown to the eyes, We
unknown flowers...
M. Gorky back in 1900 had reason to say about Bryusov that he “appears before the reader in strange and eccentric clothes, with
The mood is elusive."
Of course, far from everything from the decadent props of the first Bryusov collections should be taken seriously and considered an expression of genuine
Poet's experiences. There was a lot here from the desire to challenge the usual aesthetic norms, to draw attention to themselves, shocking the public
From a "decent" society, accustomed to the orderly, stereotyped and, for the most part, completely dull poetry of those years. Hence the notorious
The one-line poem "Oh, close your pale feet", and "the naked moon" (from the poem "Creativity"), which rises "under the azure
Moon”, and other extravagant images and motifs.
Bryusov himself admitted that in his poems he sometimes demonstrated "deliberate obscuration of meaning", "boyish swagger", "panache
Rare words, etc., in the manner of some Western poets. And in his diary of 1896, he promised that his next book “would be a gigantic
A mockery of the human race."
It is not surprising that his then performances caused bewilderment of readers, indignation of reviewers, and numerous parodies. Bryusov succeeded
So "irritate the geese" that for a number of years he was blocked from access to the big press.
If Bryusov had stopped at this stage of his poetic development,
Then in books on the history of literature he would be mentioned only in small print as one of the original representatives of decadent poetry and, of course, not
would be of great interest to us today.
But the poet himself was by no means satisfied with his poetic experiments of that time. “We were cheeky, we were kids,” he will soon say about the releases
"Russian Symbolists". He will write to his colleague in symbolism Konstantin Balmont about these collections: “You know their meaning well, that is,
The absence of their significance. And “Masterpieces” will receive such a merciless assessment of the author in the next collection: “Believe me: for a long time I have considered a poor book a mistake
Mine." And subsequently, the mature Bryusov will call his early poems "not quite
Successful tests of a somewhat arrogant young man.
Already from the third collection, published at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, - "Tertia Vigilia" ("Third Guard") - Bryusov begins the process of active
Overcoming decadence. And in this he is helped by an appeal to the example, experience, testament of the great writers of the past, and above all Pushkin, the study
The creativity of which he already then began to engage in and the admiration for which he carried through his whole life.
In Pushkin, Bryusov seeks and finds the answer to the question of what a poet should be. In his diary for 1897 we read the following entry: “The poet must
To be reborn, he must meet an angel at the crossroads, who would cut his chest with a sword and put, instead of a heart, coal burning with fire. Until this
It was, silently drag "in the wild desert" ... "
Dragging for several years in the desert of decadent art, Bryusov was already languishing and longing for renewal. On the way to overcome the egocentric
The limitations of decadence with its narrow-chamber lyrics, the poet turns to what he himself called "lyrical epic". And he finds material for it
At first, only in past centuries.
A historian by education and by his scientific interests, Bryusov possessed to a high degree, according to Gorky's definition, "a subtle and rare gift
Penetration into the past. For him, history was not a “country of graves”, but a “familiar world”, with which he “once lived with one soul”.
In the collection "The Third Watch" the main place is occupied by a large section "Favorites of the Ages". It contains expressive images of named and nameless historical and legendary heroes from different countries and eras. Here is a stern warrior who cannot imagine life outside of battles (“Old Viking”), and a poet, ideals
Who come into sharp conflict with reality ("Dante"), and the ancient observer of nature, seeking to comprehend the "mysteries of the worlds" ("Chaldean
Shepherd").
True, Bryusov approaches the depicted phenomena of the past with purely aesthetic criteria, he admires strong characters and bright
Personalities, regardless of their social and moral character. And among the "favorites of the ages" that attract the poet, it turns out, for example,
The cruel eastern despot Assargadon, who "raised his powerful throne" "on
Bones of enemies.
But the disappearance into the past and the poeticization of his "imperious shadows" undoubtedly testify to the fact that Bryusov did not find a real hero in
Modernity, that in the surrounding bourgeois-petty-bourgeois society, he saw a predominantly dull vegetation that caused him condemnation and disgust:
We are not used to bright colors, Our clothes are the color of the earth; And with a timid look we drooped, We drag slowly in the dust And what am I dreaming of? - wild
Screams. What is close to me? - blood and war. My brothers are northern lords, My time is Viking times.
The aspiration outlined in The Third Watch from the chamber, narrow-minded world to the big world with its affairs and interests is embodied in
The next collection - "Urbi et Orbi" ("City and Peace"), the very title of which the poet shows that he is no longer addressing a narrow circle of his
Like-minded people, but to a wider readership.
In such poems as "Escape", "Work", Bryusov largely anticipates the theme of Blok's poem "The Nightingale Garden". The lyrical hero of the first poem, having heard the trumpet call, runs from the magnificent alcove in which he slept a sweet dream, into life with its noise, anxieties and worries. AT
The hero of the second poem also leaves the daily life filled with hard work. Throwing off the "purple from his shoulders", he takes up the plow, shovel and
For Bryusov, a great worker, work has always been the main meaning of life. Now he glorifies work in poetry. And poetic, literary
He presents creativity - as if in a polemic with poets of a romantic-idealistic warehouse - in the form of hard work, in the form of plowing a field, and a poetic dream in the form of an ox pulling a heavy plow.
Bryusov, who recently declared in his poems: “I don’t see our reality, / I don’t know our century,” Bryusov is now turning his face to modern
Reality, eagerly absorbs its impressions. The theme of a big city enters his poetry, paintings appear and occupy a significant place
City life with its noises, roar, the movement of human crowds and fast-rushing carriages, with its temptations and contradictions. He glorifies
The modern city sings praises to him and at the same time he sees his ulcers and deformities. Bryusov becomes the first urban poet in Russian poetry XX
Century. The influence of Verlaine is replaced by the influence of the singer of the city of Verhaarn, whose works Bryusov introduces at the same time to Russian readers in his
Excellent translations. Previously, Bryusov was characterized by a confession: "I am delirious in silence alone." Now he writes in his diary: “I go to people,
I merge with people, I fraternize with them. In his poems about the city, social motives sound more and more strongly, more and more attention is paid to the fate of the disadvantaged.
Urban bottoms. At this time, Bryusov creates his famous poem "The Mason" - about a worker who is forced to erect a prison where he will
To languish in prison, perhaps his own son. And soon the poet will express the bitter complaint of another bricklayer:
We beat stones to live in the world,
And we live - to beat ...
Woe to those who are now children,
To those who should be!
After the release of The Third Guard, M. Gorky wrote to Bryusov: “You, me
It seems that they could well intercede for an oppressed person. Gorky is not
Wrong. The theme of the oppressed person appears in Bryusov and where he
Refers to the historical past. For example, in the poem "Rowers
Triremes" he speaks on behalf of the captive slaves, chained to the oars and
By the efforts of those who move the ship, on the deck of which the minions enjoy the life
The growing democratism of Bryusov's poetry is also manifested in his attempts
To imitate the forms of modern folklore, and above all urban. So
A cycle of his "Songs" appears, among which two are called "Factory".
The sharpening of the poet's attention to social issues is powerfully
The whole socio-political situation of those years contributed to
Preceding the revolutionary explosion of 1905, and especially the revolution itself.
Not so long ago, Bryusov urged not to live in the present and preached
Dispassion. Now he is deeply concerned about the unfolding big
political events. Bryusov becomes the successor of the traditions of the Russian
Classical poetry. Picking up Lermontov's comparison of a poet with a dagger,
He calls himself a "wrestling songwriter" and states:
The poet is always with people when the storm roars, And the song with the storm is forever sisters.
As a bright civil poet of great power, Bryusov appears in the collection
"Stephanos" ("Wreath"), which came out just in the days of the armed December
Uprisings of 1905. The most important section of this collection is called
"Modernity".
Bryusov stigmatizes bourgeois liberals, half-hearted
Gradualists, "satisfied with little", satisfied with miserable concessions from
sides of the tsarist regime. With all sincerity, he is ready to glorify the "ocean
People's passion, crushing the fragile throne into chips.
True, the impending revolution attracts him mainly because of its
Destructive side. He calls the revolutionaries "relatives", but declares:
Break - I'll be with you, build - no!
This gave V. I. Lenin the basis to determine the then social
Bryusov's position as the position of an "anarchist poet".
The change in the content of Bryusov's poetry and his entire worldview led to
And to change his poetic style. Already in his early poem
"Sonnet to Form" Bryusov expressed his inclination towards "honed and complete
Phrase", to "the harmony of the sonnet". But in his early collections in style, in language,
In the whole poetic manner there was much that was impressionistically obscure,
Vague, vague, indefinite. The mature Bryusov's verse becomes
Courageous, chased, forged, images - convex, clear, sculptural,
The phrase acquires a complete, aphoristic character. These qualities
Emphasize almost everything that characterized his poetry of mature years. Yes, Andrew
Bely called Bryusov "a poet of marble and bronze", he wrote about his "ringing,
Metal strings", about "strong words, like hammer blows". A.V.
Lunacharsky noted in Bryusov's "faceted accuracy of images", "the weight of each
Lines and stanzas and the beautiful architecture of the whole. And Bryusov himself believed
The merit of his poems is precisely “conciseness and strength”, “providing tenderness and
Melodiousness - to Balmont.
Of course, Bryusov's work of the 1900s and 1910s is very contradictory.
More than once he had reason to repeat the words
One of His poems: "Again my soul is split." In collections
And during its heyday, one can find many relapses of unexpired decadence.
Here and hypertrophied eroticism, the perception of love as dark,
Destructive passion, and the affirmation of the fatal loneliness of man, and
A feeling of satiety with life (one of the poems is called “Boredom
Life"), and the glorification of the "bliss of death". Yes, Bryusov could say about himself,
That worshiped those that are brighter, that the body,
It trembled in anticipation of the shadows.
Favorite heroes of Bryusov and in his "lyric-epic" works are those whose,
According to the poet, "beautiful is the clear lot - / shine and die" - very
Are different. Along with Aeneas, who rushed towards a high feat,
Leaving the bed of neg, "thrown out the thoughts of love", the poet glorifies the triumvir
Anthony, because of his love for the Egyptian queen Cleopatra, who violated his duty
statesman and commander. “Oh, let me draw the same lot!” -
Bryusov exclaims, finishing this poem.
And yet in the consciousness and poetry of Bryusov over the decadent,
The pessimistic, individualistic more and more triumphed otherwise,
Heroic, life-affirming, humanistic principle. The poet is increasingly
Glorifies the man-creator, tireless worker, creator,
A victorious man, transforming the earth, conquering nature, knowing
the universe. In this regard, the famous
The poem "Praise to the Man."
Stones, wind, water, flame
You humbled with your bridle,
Raised a jubilant banner
Right into the blue dome.
Before other poets, Bryusov glorified the first aviators. With firm faith in
The power of the human mind, the power of science and technology, he looks into the future,
He dreams that a person will win victories in space, he will even be able to change
And the trajectory of your planet:
I believe, bold!
You will put
Rows of sails across the Earth.
You guide with your hand
The run of the planet between the stars.
Symbolist magazine "Scales". But it can be argued that he never
Orthodox symbolist. He was alien, for example, to the mysticism of most of his
Junior colleagues, their faith in the other world and in the possibility of some
Communication with a mime. He had long felt like a stranger "among his own." Back in 1907
He wrote to one literary critic: “Although from the outside I seem to be the leader of those whom
Of old memory they call our decadents, but in reality I am among them
Like a hostage in an enemy camp. For a long time already everything that I write, and everything that
I say, my literary comrades definitely do not like it, but I,
Frankly, I don’t really like what they write and say.” Subsequently, he
He recalled stormy disputes with the Symbolists, who severely reproached him for
Realism in symbolism, for materialism in idealism.
Symbolists, led to a break with them. Once he insistently extolled the dream
And dream of reality. Now in his critical articles he
Reality" that "as soon as art breaks away from reality,
His creatures lose flesh and blood, wither and die."
To the all-round strengthening of communication with the surrounding reality, with the real
Life, including the most ordinary, the simplest, Bryusov strives in his
Poems of the 1910s.
At the dawn of his work, Bryusov expressed demonstrative disdain for
To real nature:
I created in secret dreams the World of ideal nature, - What is this
Ashes: Steppes, and rocks, and waters.
Soon, however, this arrogant and contemptuous attitude towards nature,
The expression of the poet, "jumped" from him. With each new collection of 1900 - 1910s
Over the years, the theme of nature occupies an increasing place in Bryusov. Fields, forests, mountains,
The sea, “the brilliance of the day, the black of the night, springs, winters” find their lover in it
In his poems of the second decade of the 20th century, Bryusov deliberately
Argues with decadent mindsets. He wants to oppose
Characteristic of his former associates, the weariness of life "indomitable,
An invincible call to life, to life at all costs, to all wounds and
Her joys." No wonder his collection "Mirror of Shadows" opens with an epigraph from
As long as on the chest of the earth Although I will hardly breathe, All the thrill of life
Young I will be intelligible from everywhere.
And the collection "Seven Colors of the Rainbow" begins with exuberant lines:
What am I to do when I am not sated with this intoxicated life!
In the same decade, Bryusov's work also included the big theme of friendship.
The peoples inhabiting Russia, and the poet makes a great contribution with his work
In the development and strengthening of this friendship.
Even before the revolution, he becomes close to M. Gorky, actively participates in
His publishing endeavors. Gorky highly valued the collaboration between Bryusov and
He called him "comrade in work for the benefit of Russian culture." Highly
Their cooperation was fruitful in the preparation of collections that contributed to
Familiarization of Russian readers with the poetry of some other peoples of Russia.
The book "Poetry of Armenia" compiled by Bryusov acquired special significance.
Which he worked both as a translator of many poetic texts, and as
For Russian readers, the rich world of Armenian poetic culture, and
Not surprisingly, during the celebration of his fiftieth birthday, he was awarded
Honorary title of People's Poet of Armenia.
For a quarter of a century of his pre-revolutionary creativity, Bryusov, as we
We see that different “paths and crossroads” came out (as he called the three-volume collection
of his works), he tried, one might say, “all tunes” (this is also
The title of one of his collections).
In the 900s, Bryusov already enjoyed great popularity and recognition.
But he never rested on his laurels and often felt
Dissatisfaction with their position in life and literature, their creativity.
In his letter to the writer N. I. Petrovskaya, associated with the symbolist
In circles, we find, for example, the following confessions: "I can no longer live
Outdated beliefs, those ideals through which I stepped into
Poetry cannot live by the "new art", the very name of which is intolerable to me
More". And in his diary he writes in 1907: “At times I am quite
I was sincerely ready to give up all the old ways of my life and move on to new ones,
Start all over again."
However, only the greatest event of the 20th century, which caused a powerful shock
All public life from top to bottom, - the October Socialist
The revolution forced Bryusov "at the very foundation, at the very root to reconsider everything
Your worldview." It turned out to be a profound upheaval for him personally.
“I myself see myself,” Bryusov noted, “completely different to this point and after
It may seem surprising that the meter of the Symbolist current, in
A former militant defender of the individualistic and self-contained
Art decisively and irrevocably went over to the side of the October
Revolution, became an active builder of socialist culture and even a member
Communist Party.
In order to find an explanation for this, we must remember that Bryusov
He has never been a faithful son of his class, he has long been "breaking out" of it.
Impregnated with knowledge of history, admiring the heroism of prominent people and
Great events of the past, Bryusov and to his present presented high
Ethical and aesthetic requirements to which bourgeois reality
Far from matching. Hence his long-standing conflict with this
Reality. Bryusov was quite sincere when he wrote in
Beginning of the century:
How I hated all this life the system, Shamefully petty, wrong,
Ugly.
Different socio-historical formations, Bryusov understood and foresaw
The inevitability of the fall and the existing capitalist system. He more than once in
He spoke of the impending social cataclysm in his works, he
Looking ahead to the future when
A free man will firmly stand Before the face of the sky on his planet.
Naturally, the poet is much more than the multitude of his colleagues in
Class and profession prepared to receive and welcome
Great October, to "turn his horse on a new path."
Back in 1906, he wrote: “There are some truths ... ahead of modern
Humanity. Whoever shows me the way to them, I will be with him. This path is decisive
The moment was indicated to Bryusov by the October Revolution, Lenin and his associates.
In the early spring of 1918, when a significant part of the intelligentsia
It also occupied hostile or waiting positions in relation to the Soviet
Authorities, Bryusov, together with Professor P. N. Sakulin, came to the People's Commissar
Enlightenment A. V. Lunacharsky and offered his cooperation.
We saw that in 1905 the poet declared, addressing the revolutionaries:
“Break - I will be with you, build - no!” Now he went to build along with
Communists a new society, a new culture.
A man of extraordinary activity by nature, Bryusov has always been
Only a writer. Even before the revolution, he gave a lot of time and effort
Organizational work in the field of literature and culture. October opened for
His social and organizational activities are wide open.
He conducts responsible work in the People's Commissariat of Education, heading scientific
Libraries, literature department, art education. He is a member
State Academic Council, Deputy of the Moscow Council, Professor
Moscow University, editor of the journal "Artistic Word",
Chairman of the All-Russian Union of Poets. He works at the State Publishing House. He
Creates and leads the world's first institution of higher education for the preparation
Young Writers - Higher Literary and Art Institute, which
His name was given.
And he combines this big, intense daily work with
The continuation of the main work of his life - poetic creativity. For seven
The years he lived after October, he publishes six collections of new poems and
Becomes one of the pioneers of Soviet poetry. The verses included in these
Collections are not equal, but among them there are those that belong to
Poetic classics of the post-October years.
Particularly significant was the collection with expressive
The outstanding poet was born on December 1 in a wealthy family that had its origin in the serfs. The father raised his son in the spirit of the sixties. Especially in the family of Valery Yakovlevich they loved to reread the works of Nekrasov. Valery Yakovlevich received his education in the private Moscow gymnasium of F. Kreiman, after which he came to the gymnasium of L. Polivanov, a well-known teacher who had a significant influence on the poet. Bryusov was interested in literature, history, philosophy, astronomy.
In the verses of the vast majority of that time, banality, not an expressive form, prevailed. His early poems originated in that time. In 1894-1895, Bryusov compiled small collections of poems "Russian Symbolists", most of which were written by himself and speak of the poet's extraordinary talent. In 1895 he published the book "Masterpieces", In 1897 - "This is me". In 1899, after graduating from the university, he devotes himself entirely to literary activity. He works as a secretary in the editorial office of the journal "Russian Archive", takes part in the creation and development of almanacs and the journal "Vesy". Bryusov received his recognition after the publication of the book "The Third Guard" in 1900. In 1903 he published the book The City and the World. And in 1906 - "Wreath" - these are his best poetic books. In subsequent years, new features appeared in the author's poetry: intimacy, sincerity, simplicity of thoughts and feelings.
Reading the works of Bryusov, it is impossible not to pay attention to the stubbornly repeated motif - the image of the path, wandering, relentless movement forward and difficult ascent. During the First World War, Valery Yakovlevich was at the front, where he served as a correspondent for one of the newspapers. The October Revolution discovered in the poet the talent of an organizer of a new culture. Studying the work of Pushkin A.S. whose work he admired and bowed to him all his life, Valery Yakovlevich found the answer to the question “What should a real poet be like?”. A real poet must be reborn, and instead of a heart there must be a flaming coal, invested in him by an angel. He published five books of new poems, the best of which is On Days Like These. He contributed a lot to the study of the Russian language and the study of the works of famous Russian poets: Pushkin, Fet, Gogol, Blok and many others. Bryusov also lectured on ancient and modern Russian literature, the Latin language, and history.
Biography of Bryusov
Valery Yakovlevich Bryusov (1873-1924) - Russian poet and prose writer, playwright, translator, literary critic, one of the founders of Russian symbolism.
Childhood and youth
Valery Yakovlevich Bryusov was born on December 1 (December 13) in Moscow into a merchant family. The future poet received his primary education at home. Since 1885, Bryusov studied at the classical gymnasium of F.I. Kreiman in Moscow. In 1890 he was transferred to the Moscow Gymnasium L. I. Polivanov.
University years
In 1893, Bryusov entered the Faculty of History and Philology at Moscow University. During this period, Valery Yakovlevich discovers the French symbolists - Verlaine, Baudelaire, Mallarmé. Admiring the work of Verlaine, he creates the drama “The Decadents. (End of the century)." Positioning himself as the founder of Russian symbolism, in 1894 - 1895 Valery Yakovlevich published three collections "Russian Symbolists".
In 1895, Bryusov's first collection of poems "Masterpieces" ("Chefs d'oeuvre") was published, which caused a wide resonance among literary critics. In 1897, the second collection of the poet, Me eum esse (This is me), was published.
Mature creativity
After graduating from the university in 1899 with a diploma of the 1st degree, Bryusov gets a job in P. Bartenev's magazine "Russian Archive". The poet is actively engaged in literary activity. In 1900, Bryusov's third collection Tertia Vigilia (The Third Guard) was published, which brought him literary fame.
Bryusov becomes one of the founders of the Scorpio publishing house. Since 1903, he has been collaborating in the New Way magazine. In the same year, the poet's collection "Urbi et Orbi" ("City and Peace") was published.
In 1901-1905, Bryusov took part in the creation of the almanac "Northern Flowers". In 1904-1909, he was the de facto editor of the Russian symbolist magazine Vesy. Since 1908, Valery Bryusov, whose biography was full of new acquaintances with young writers, became the director of the Moscow literary and artistic circle.
The work of the poet between two revolutions
Bryusov's reaction to the moods and events of the revolution of 1905-1907 was the drama "Earth" and the collection "Wreath" (1905). In 1907, his prose collection of short stories, The Earth's Axis, was published; in 1909, the poetic collection All Melodies was published. In the post-revolutionary years, Valery Yakovlevich created the novel "Altar of Victory" (1911 - 1912), a collection of short stories "Nights and Days" (1913).
In 1914, during the First World War, Bryusov went to the front as a war correspondent for Russkiye Vedomosti. In 1916 he published the collection Seven Colors of the Rainbow.
last years of life
With the coming to power of the Bolsheviks, in 1917 - 1919, Valery Yakovlevich took the post of head of the Committee for the Registration of the Press. In 1919-1921 he was appointed chairman of the Presidium of the All-Russian Union of Poets. With the organization of the Higher Literary and Art Institute in 1921, Bryusov became its rector and professor.
Valery Yakovlevich Bryusov died on October 9, 1924 from pneumonia. The poet was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow. In memory of the life and work of Bryusov Valery Yakovlevich, a monument with a portrait was erected on his grave.
- In his teenage years, Bryusov was fond of the work of Nekrasov, considering him his idol.
- The third collection "Tertia Vigilia" Bryusov dedicated to his friend Konstantin Balmont, whom he met in his university years.
- At the age of 24, Bryusov married Joanna Runt, with whom he lived until the end of his life.
- A brief biography of Bryusov would be incomplete without mentioning his merits as a translator. Valery Yakovlevich opened E. Verharn to domestic readers, was engaged in translations of P. Verlaine, E. Poe, M. Maeterlinck, Byron, V. Hugo, O. Wild and many others.
- For the collection of translations of Armenian poets "Poetry of Armenia from ancient times to the present day" Bryusov was awarded the title of People's Poet of Armenia.
Bryusov Valery Yakovlevich
13.12.1873 - 09.10.1924
biography
Born into a merchant family. The grandfather on the father's side is a merchant from the former serfs, and the grandfather on the mother's side is a self-taught poet A. Ya. Bakulin. My father was fond of literature and natural sciences.
In the private gymnasium of F. I. Kreiman (1885-1889), Bryusov was immediately admitted to the second grade. In the second year of study, together with a classmate V. K. Stanyukovich, he publishes a handwritten gymnasium magazine "The Beginning", through which he first realizes himself as a "writer".
In 1889, he published a handwritten "Leaflet of the V class", in which he denounced the gymnasium's order. Because of this article, Bryusov's relations with the administration are aggravated, as a result of which he has to go to the L. I. Polivanov gymnasium (1890-1893). At the same time, Bryusov is experiencing a number of first youthful hobbies, a love affair with E. A. Maslova (Kraskova) who died suddenly in 1893 from smallpox, to whom he devoted many poems and the last chapters (under the name of the heroine Nina) story "My youth".
In 1893-1899. Bryusov studies at the Faculty of History and Philology of Moscow University. In addition to classical philology, he studies Kant and Leibniz, listens to history courses by V. O. Klyuchevsky, P. G. Vinogradov, and attends the seminars of F. E. Korsh. During the years of study at the university, the first initial period of conscious literary creativity of Bryusov falls.
In 1894-1895. Bryusov publishes three small editions of the collection "Russian Symbolists", in which he gives examples of "new poetry". It was the first collective manifesto of Russian modernism in Russia. The reaction to the collections was scandalous and deafening.
In 1895-1986, Bryusov published the first author's collection of poems "Masterpieces", consisting of two editions. The catchy title, defiant content and far from modesty preface, addressed to "eternity and art", caused a unanimous rejection of criticism.
In the period from 1895 to 1899, he became close to famous symbolist writers: K. K. Sluchevsky, K. M. Fofanov, F. Sollogub, D. S. Merezhkovsky, Z. N. Gippius, N. M. Minsky. On the "Saturdays" of Georg Bachmann, and then on his own "Wednesdays", Bryusov began to meet regularly with Moscow modernists.
In 1897 he traveled abroad for the first time, to Germany. In the same year, he marries Ioanna Matveevna Runt, who became his life partner and assistant in literary affairs.
From 1900 to 1903, Bryusov was the editorial secretary of the Archive. He publishes a number of articles here, including "On the collected works of F. I. Tyutchev" (1898), "F. I. Tyutchev. Chronicle of his life" (1903).
In the autumn of 1900, the publishing house "Scorpion" published the third book of Bryusov's lyrics "The Third Guard. A book of new poems. 1897-1900", opening the second mature period of the writer's work.
In March 1903, Bryusov delivered a keynote lecture on art, "Keys of Secrets", which was perceived as a manifesto of the latest Russian symbolism.
Since the end of 1902, the poet has been a secretary in the journal "New Way" for some time, publishes poems, articles, notes, and also maintains the column "Political Review". At the same time, he was a member of the commission of the Moscow literary and artistic circle, and since 1908 - the chairman of its directorate.
The collection "Wreath. Poems 1903-1905" became the poet's first truly major success. In it, along with historical and mythological plots and intimate lyrics, Bryusov included poems on the topical topic of war and revolution. With fantastic rapture, as the purifying element of fate, the poet looks at war and revolution.
By 1909, Bryusov became a recognized master of "courageous", Apollonian lyrics.
In 1904-1908. Bryusov is the organizer, permanent leader and leading author of the main magazine of Russian symbolists, "Scales". After the closure of "Balance" (1909), from September 1910, for two years, Bryusov became the head of the literary-critical department of the journal "Russian Thought".
During the First World War, Bryusov spent many months as a correspondent in the theater of operations. At first, this war seemed to the poet the last ("The Last War", 1914), capable of transforming human life for the better. However, after two and a half years, Bryusov's opinion about her changed ("The Thirtieth Month", 1917). Disillusioned with the outcome of the war and politics, Bryusov goes deeper and deeper into literature and scientific work. He turns to translations of Armenian, Finnish and Latvian poetry.
In 1923, the year of the 50th anniversary of the poet, the Armenian government awarded Bryusov the honorary title of People's Poet of Armenia.
Disappointment in the victorious outcome of the war, after a brief hesitation, prepared Bryusov for the adoption of the October Revolution. In 1920, he joined the Communist Party, worked in the People's Commissariat of Education, headed the presidium of the All-Russian Union of Poets, read various lecture courses, organized (1921) and directed the Higher Literary and Art Institute.
Post-October, mostly revolutionary collections of poems by Bryusov ("On Such Days", 1921; "Dali", 1922; "Hurry", 1924) marked the last, final period of the master's work.
