Born on December 9, according to other sources on December 6 (18), 1848 in a family of serfs in the village of Nizovka, Tver province. He studied at school for two incomplete winters, then his mother sent him to work in St. Petersburg.
Next years of life Yeast spent his time wandering around Russia, he changed many professions.
In St. Petersburg (1860-1871) he was engaged in self-education, became acquainted with the works of Leo Tolstoy and others.
At the age of 16, Drozhzhin wrote his first poem, and in 1867 he began keeping a diary, which he kept until the end of his life.
Drozhzhin's first publication in the magazine “Gramotey” (1873). From that time on, Drozhzhin became an active contributor to many magazines: “Delo”, “Slovo”, “Family Evenings”, etc., including Tver ones - “Tverskoy Vestnik” (1878-1882).
Due to his poor financial situation and under the influence of meetings with Leo Tolstoy (1892, 1897), he returned to his homeland (1896), devoting himself to literary work.
After the Ivankovskoe reservoir was filled, his ashes and his last house were transferred to the urban settlement in 1937. Novozavidovsky, where a museum is opened (more than 2 thousand storage units).
By the end of the 19th century he became the most famous Russian peasant poet; Rainer Maria Rilke visited him in Nizovka in the summer of 1900.
In the first decade of the 20th century. the poet's books came out one after another, Drozhzhin was elected an honorary member of the Society of Lovers of Russian Literature (1905), and received several literary awards. The poems of this period are characterized by a description of rural life that combines both beauty and sadness (at the same time, unlike many urban poets, Drozhzhin does not touch upon the revolutionary events of 1905 - 1907; a striking example is a poem dedicated to Apollo of Corinth, who also wrote rural poetry) .
Drozhzhin met the October Revolution in Nizovka and soon left it, taking up public work. He was elected chairman of the Congress of Proletarian Writers of the Tver Province (1919), an honorary member of the All-Russian Union of Poets (1923).
Drozhzhin's early poetry experienced a variety of influences. Many poems of the pre-October period enjoyed enormous popularity among the people, became songs, were recorded for gramophones, and penetrated into folklore. Drozhzhin is one of the most prolific peasant poets, having published more than 30 collections of poetry; at the end of his life, his poems repeat previous motifs that intersect with the new pathos of socialist affirmation.
He spent his last years in Nizovka. He published a lot in local periodicals, including in the Zarnitsa almanac.
(6(18).12.1848 – 24.12.1930)
Outstanding Russian self-taught peasant poet of the late 19th - first third of the 20th century. Spiridon Dmitrievich Drozhzhin was born in the village of Nizovka, Gorodno volost, Tver district, Tver province (according to other sources, in the village of Pugino, neighboring Nizovka) on December 18 (6), 1848 in the family of the poorest peasants, serfs of the landowner M.G. Bezobrazova. Drozhzhin lived very poorly and oppressive poverty, reaching the point of poverty, surrounded the future poet from childhood. At the same time, the formation of his personality was most directly influenced by the patriarchal atmosphere of the peasant way of life, as well as the instilling in him from childhood of the rudiments of the Orthodox faith, especially by his grandfather, who “was unusually pious” and “a passionate lover of the books of the Holy Scriptures.”
In the fall of 1858, his mother took young Spiridon to school with the village sexton, where he studied for “two half-winters.” Then at the end of 1860 S.D. Drozhzhin, due to the difficult financial situation of the family, was sent by his parents to work in St. Petersburg. His first profession was as a sex boy in the dirty Caucasus tavern at the Europe Hotel.
Subsequently, trying to get out of poverty, Drozhzhin changed many occupations: he was a clerk in a tobacco shop and a gas candle store, a bartender's assistant, a laborer, a lackey for a landowner, a trustee for the supply of firewood for the Nikolaev Railway, an agent of the Volga Shipping Company "Airplane", a salesman in bookstores. stores, studied at the school of dairy farming N.V. Vereshchagin. During the entire 35-year period of wandering, the poet alternately lived in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Tashkent, Kharkov, Novgorod and Yaroslavl provinces. Drozhzhin endured months of complete poverty, when he had to pawn items of clothing and spend the night right on the streets and in parks. The forced need to sell his labor for meager wages, constant material and housing dependence on employers formed in the poet a heightened sense of social inequality, which he embodied in many poems.
In 1863, Drozhzhin first became acquainted with the work of N.A. Nekrasov, in 1864 - with the revolutionary democratic magazine Iskra. Tirelessly engaged in self-education, the poet enrolled in the Imperial Public Library in 1866. His reading range included the works of L.N. Tolstoy, I.S. Turgeneva, A.F. Pisemsky, I.A. Goncharova, N.G. Pomyalovsky, G.I. Uspensky and others, as well as the works of N.A., banned at that time. Dobrolyubova and N.G. Chernyshevsky. The poet’s personal library included books by A.S. Pushkina, M.Yu. Lermontov, A.V. Koltsova, V.G. Belinsky, I.S. Nikitina, T.G. Shevchenko, N.A. Nekrasov, F. Schiller, P. Beranger. A visit to a meeting of a circle of St. Petersburg raznochintsy students in 1867 contributed to the formation of S.D.’s independent beliefs. Drozhzhin, which combined revolutionary democratic and Orthodox sovereign views (for example, in the poem “Rus (1875) he relies on the well-known triad “Orthodoxy, autocracy, nationality”).
The entire period of forced wanderings of S.D. Drozhzhin maintained family, social and spiritual ties with his rural homeland. Periodically returning to Nizovka, the poet enjoys doing agricultural work, which becomes for him a source of not only moral satisfaction, but also creative inspiration (“The First Furrow (1884), “The Plowman’s Song” (1891) and other poems).
The first poetic experiments of S.D. Drozhzhin dates back to 1865, but the beginning of his creative activity is considered to be the publication of the poem “Song about the grief of a good fellow” at the end of 1873 in the magazine “Gramotey”.
In February 1878 S.D. Drozhzhin becomes close to the Orthodox writer and teacher N.A. Solovyov-Nesmelov (1847-1901), who had a huge influence on the spiritual and creative development of the poet. With his mediation, Drozhzhin began in the early 1880s. published in the magazines “Family Evenings”, “Light”, “Children’s Reading”, “Ray”, “Spring”, “Education and Training”, “Young Russia”, “Rebus”, poetry collections, and in 1879 began correspondence with I.Z. Surikov. In 1880-1881 he, together with N.A. Solovyov-Nesmelov and several other writers organized the “Pushkin Circle”, due to participation in which in 1884 he came under the secret surveillance of the police.
In 1884, the autobiographical narrative “Peasant Poet S.D.” was published in three issues of the magazine “Russian Antiquity.” Drozhzhin in his memoirs. 1848-1884", written by order of editor-publisher M.I. Semevsky. In 1889, the poet's first book was published in St. Petersburg, and literary criticism began to pay serious attention to him. However, S.D. Drozhzhin continued to experience poverty and deprivation: his two sons died in infancy, and in 1894 his house burned down in Nizovka, along with his library and manuscripts.
In 1896 S.D. Drozhzhin and his family finally return to their native village, where they combine peasant labor with literary creativity. This decision was supported by L.N. Tolstoy, with whom S.D. Drozhzhin met in 1892 and 1897. The creative result of this step was the final self-identification of S.D. Drozhzhin as a national Orthodox poet-peasant, merging with his native “soil” both physically and spiritually.
At the turn of the XIX-XX centuries. the poet reaches the peak of his literary activity and readership: 32 of his 35 books during his lifetime were published in 1898-1929. Collections by S.D. were very popular. Drozhzhin’s “Songs of the Peasant” (1898), “Poetry of Labor and Sorrow” (1901), “New Poems” (1904), “Bayan” (1909), etc. Despite his constant stay in the village, he does not break away from the all-Russian literary and cultural life: maintains relationships and makes new acquaintances with publishers, editors and writers A.A. Korinfsky, I.A. Belousov, F.F. Fiedler, N.N. Zlatovratsky, I.I. Gorbunov-Posadov, M.L. Leonov and others. In 1899, the poet became a member of the mutual aid fund for writers and scientists, and in 1905 - a member of the Society of Lovers of Russian Literature. In 1903, the Surikov literary and musical circle, which, together with Drozhzhin, included “writers from the people” M.L. Leonov, E.E. Nechaev, F.S. Shkulev and others, organizes his celebration in Moscow in connection with the 30th anniversary of literary activity. Based on verses by S.D. Drozhzhin composed music by more than 30 composers, including Ts.A. Cui, V.S. Kalinnikov, V.I. Rebikov, F.O. Lasek, R.M. Glier, A.N. Chernyavsky. Two songs based on his poems were performed by F.I. Chaliapin.
Poetry S.D. Drozhzhina attracted the attention of the outstanding German poet R.M. Rilke, who visited Nizovka on July 18-23, 1900 and translated several of his poems into German.
In 1900-1903 S.D. Drozhzhin held the position of village headman. This fact indicated that the peasants saw him as their authoritative representative. The poet, although he tried to distance himself from the burden of public concerns, perceived his new duty as an opportunity to serve the people, which was fully consistent with his democratic beliefs.
In 1903, the Russian Academy of Sciences awarded the poet an annual lifelong pension named after Emperor Nicholas II in the amount of 180 rubles, which became his main source of income. In December 1910, based on the review of honorary academician K.K. Romanov (K.R.) four books by S.D. Drozhzhin's 1907-1909 publications were awarded the M.N. Akhmatova in the amount of 500 rubles. On November 11, 1912, the poet received a short audience with K.K. Romanova. He received this meeting, as well as the essay about himself sent later with a dedicatory inscription by K.R., with great joy.
The main themes of S.D.’s poetry Drozhzhin's work was rural work and life, landscapes of all seasons, selfless patriotic service to the Motherland and social protest against the oppressed position of the poorest strata of the people, lyrical and philosophical reflections on the universal constants of existence, moral improvement, peasant grief and spiritual stoicism. Despite the continuity of S.D. Drozhzhin from the material and spiritual structure of the Tver village, his poetry, in terms of the degree of typification of social processes and life situations, thoughts and internal experiences of the lyrical hero - the peasant plowman - belongs to all-Russian, and not to regionally closed literary phenomena. Thanks to its folk song basis, the expression of the peasant worldview, national character, folklore axiology and imagery, life authenticity, and simplicity of style, it was accessible to the widest readership.
Quite a few poems by S.D. Drozhzhin’s stories about rural labor are permeated with a genuine sense of healthy optimism and poeticization of agriculture. He emphasizes such a feature of the peasant mentality as non-acquisitiveness, but at the same time, he did not deny the ideal of modest wealth, provided exclusively with his own hands, present in the consciousness of the peasant.
The peasant’s joy at work was accompanied by a considerable number of troubles: he suffered material poverty, the death of a plowman’s horse in the midst of sowing, crop failure, hunger, and poverty. A whole range of pessimistic motives and situations associated with this side of village life, which can be united by the collective expression “peasant grief,” unfolds in Drozhzhin’s poems “Two Seasons” (1876), “The Death of a Plowman Horse” (1877), “Into the Drought” (1897), “On the Volga” (1899), “On an Autumn Night” (1907), etc. However, even at the level of the figurative system, the poet contrasts peasant labor with urban labor: the first for him is “cheerful”, “vigorous”, “free” ”, “joyful”, the second - “forced”, “oppressive”, “overwhelming”. Unlike the village, the city gives Drozhzhin almost no positive emotions. The description of the factory and the cramped rooms where the urban poor live takes on in his urban lyrics the features of infernity and phantasmagoria (“Night” (1887), “In the Capital” (1884), “It’s hard for me to remember...” (1899), etc.). The “city-village” antithesis is similarly projected onto the everyday sphere.
Painting the rural reality, S.D. Drozhzhin constantly dreamed of realizing the age-old peasant dream in the form of a kind of “peasant paradise”, the benefits of which, expressed in the idealized attributes of everyday life, would become the highest reward for peasant labor. The motive of honest labor is one of the cross-cutting motifs in Drozhzhin’s lyrics.
Nature in Drozhzhin’s poems is the forest, water and meadow landscapes of the Upper Volga region, unassuming in their external beauty. They are distinguished by realistic specificity, convexity, close connection with the economic cycle of peasant life, and a synthesis of natural and everyday landscapes. However, in each season, the poet, along with admiration for spring, the joy of summer, the “autumn festival” (harvest), and the tranquility of winter, still embodies the contradictory nature of peasant life, which also gives rise to more complex combinations of psychological moods.
Out of love for the surrounding peasant and natural world - purely concrete and extremely material - it grew in the poetry of S.D. Drozhzhina has a high and unshakable sense of patriotism. Love for his small homeland evokes in his soul all-human responsiveness, love for the whole world.
The main civic motives in Drozhzhin’s pre-revolutionary poems were the desire for freedom, perceived primarily as peasant will and protest against social injustice (“Not a cheerful tune ...” (1878), “Give free will to honest impulses ...” (1879), “Will "(1905), "From bleak, bitter thoughts..." (1906), etc.). At the same time, the ideological core of the poet’s political beliefs was the concept of civil peace. In the poem “After a Long Separation” (1917), dedicated to his neighbor-landowner N.A. Tolstoy (1856-1918), he does not advocate the aggravation of social confrontation, but for the reconciliation of various social groups on the basis of the highest civil and spiritual value - Russia.
The social, cultural, moral and philosophical fundamental principles of S.D.’s worldview and creativity. Drozhzhin always remained Orthodox. That is why Christian spirituality, moral premises, gospel stories and biblical allusions permeate all the thematic blocks and motives of his lyrics. The religiosity of Russian people in Drozhzhin’s works is a natural norm of behavior. The rural landscape, the surrounding nature, and the immensity of the universe permeate him with a Christian aura.
S.D. Drozhzhin also created many Orthodox-civil poems, for example, “For 1879” (1878), “Drinking Song” (1880), “Glory to the Most High God” (1886), “To God” (1909), etc. In poetic prayers he advocates before Christ for the personal acquisition of the highest Christian virtues.
The bipolarity of national life determined the ambivalence of S.D.’s poetic thinking. Drozhzhin, which was most convincingly embodied in his programmatic poem “I am for a soulful song...” (1891).
The February and then the October Revolution S.D. Drozhzhin initially greeted them with enthusiasm, seeing in them the real implementation of the ideal of free peasant Rus'. But, wary of revolutionary innovations, in the spring of 1917 he refused to participate in the work of the volost executive committee and become chairman of the volost court.
In 1918-1920 S.D. Drozhzhin, shocked by the new national disasters, in a number of his poems (“It’s scary to live and boring...” (1918), “Tsar Hunger” (1919), “The soul hurts, the mind is troubled...” (1920), etc.) angrily denounces the anti-national and the anti-Orthodox essence of the October Revolution, the “Red Terror”, the total robbery of the peasants in the process of surplus appropriation, the brutality of the suppression of popular uprisings, the fratricidal Civil War.
The taking of N.A. hostage and extrajudicial execution had a particularly depressing effect on the poet. Tolstoy with his wife. For these reasons, in the early 1920s. S.D. Drozhzhin, also deprived of his previous material support, is experiencing a deep spiritual crisis, which he has not completely overcome in subsequent years, which is confirmed by his correspondence with long-time friends, the poets A.A. Korinfsky, M.L. Leonov and I.A. Belousov.
House-Museum of S.D. Yeast |
However, the poet participates in the work of the First Congress of Tver Poets and Writers from the People, held in Tver on November 6-8, 1919, and maintains close creative and personal contacts with members of the Tver Literary and Artistic Society named after I.S. Nikitina. In order not to die of hunger, Drozhzhin, overcoming his illnesses, speaks at literary evenings in Moscow, Tver, Klin, Zavidovo, Redkin.
Since 1923, the unfavorable situation around the poet began to change for the better. Its readership popularity is increasing again. At the request of the Society for the Study of the Tver Region, the Central Commission for the Improvement of the Living Life of Scientists on February 20, 1923 appointed S.D. Drozhzhin received an increased pension and academic rations. In Nizovka itself, the poet is visited by delegations of schoolchildren and fellow writers; he also receives many letters from admirers of his talent. In 1923, the Tver Nikitin residents prepared and held a celebration of the poet in connection with his 75th birthday. In the same year, five books by S.D. were published in Moscow and Tver. Drozhzhin, and he himself was elected an honorary member of the All-Russian Union of Poets. The name Drozhzhin is given to several schools, one of the streets of Tver, and a steamship. Drozhzhinsky rooms are opened in the Tver and Rzhevsky museums, and Nizovka is renamed Drozhzhinsky. By order of the People's Commissar of Posts and Telegraphs, on February 27, 1926, a radio receiver was installed in the poet's house, and in the year of his 80th birthday he received a greeting from the President of the USSR Academy of Sciences A.P. Karpinsky.
Despite the popularization of his poetry, recognition of his services to literature and the people, the work of S.D. After 1917, Drozhzhin was interpreted in a vulgar sociological vein and was subject to strong censorship interference: poems on Orthodox themes were thrown out of books, many works were mercilessly suppressed or subjected to ideological editorial editing, often arbitrary. In Tver itself, the celebration of the poet's 80th birthday was used by local authorities, primarily for political purposes. Publications in the newspapers “Tverskaya Pravda” and “Smena” falsified the complex pages of Drozhzhin’s life, creating a mythologized and far from reality image of a working poet, tirelessly singing the praises of Soviet power.
As a result, despite the favor of high officials of the Soviet state, S.D. Drozhzhin, in the depths of his consciousness, remained an “internal emigrant,” sometimes openly demonstrating opposition to the new government. So, in the summer of 1929 he received the poet A.A. in Nizovka. Korinfsky, who on November 14, 1928 was arrested in Leningrad in the case of “participation in the counter-revolutionary work of a group of monarchists”, by the decision of the OGPU Collegium of May 13, 1929, was convicted under Articles 58-10 and 58-11 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR (anti-Soviet agitation) and sent to Tver.
S.D. Drozhzhin died in Nizovka on December 24, 1930. In 1937, during the construction of the Ivankovo reservoir, the poet’s ashes and his house were moved from the flood zone to the village. Zavidovo, where on May 1, 1938 the House-Museum of S.D. Yeast.
A.M. Boinikov, Candidate of Philological Sciences, Associate Professor,
member of the Union of Writers of Russia, member of the Union of Journalists of Russia.
Bibliography:
Drozhzhin S.D. Collected works: in 3 volumes. - Tver: SFK-office, 2015. - Vol. 1-3.
Boynikov A.M. Poetry of Spiridon Drozhzhin: monograph. - Tver: TvGU, 2005. - 228 p.
Spiridon Dmitrievich Drozhzhin: bibliogr. decree. - Tver: ChuDo, 1998. - 115 p.
Spiridon Drozhzhin through the eyes of his contemporaries and descendants. - Tver: Golden Letter, 2001. - 240 p.
Goncharova I.A., Redkin V.A. Devotees of traditions: Essay on the Tver Literary and Artistic Society named after I.S. Nikitina. - Tver: Tver regional book and magazine publishing house, 2002. - 192 p.
Ivanova L.N. Drozhzhin Spiridon Dmitrievich // Russian writers. 1800-1917. Biographical Dictionary. - M., 1992. - T. 2. - P. 187.
Drozhzhin Spiridon Dmitrievich, Russian Soviet poet.
Born into a serf family. He began publishing in 1873 and became known as a talented “self-taught poet,” a defender of disadvantaged people, a singer of agricultural labor and Russian nature. The poet welcomed the October Revolution, seeing in it the fulfillment of the aspirations of the people (poems “Zapevka”, “At the Gathering”, 1920, "In memory of V.I. Lenin", 1924, etc.).
Poems by Drozhzhin, which were influenced by A. V. Koltsova And N. A. Nekrasova, sincere, distinguished by immediacy of perception, melodiousness; Set to music, some songs became folklore. In 1938, the Drozhzhin Museum was opened in the village of Zavidovo, Kalinin Region.
L. A. Ilyin
Spiridon Dmitrievich Drozhzhin was born in 1848 in the village of Nizovka, Tver district, died in 1930 there. From the age of twelve he lived in St. Petersburg and worked as a “boy” and “floor boy” in hotels and taverns, as a salesman in a tobacco shop and bookstore, as a footman serving in a tobacco factory (in Tashkent) and on the railway, and from the late 1870s was engaged in agricultural work. At the same time, he began to constantly publish his poems in “Toy”, “Family Evenings”, “Children’s Reading”, “Spring”, “Word”, “Deed”, “Ray”, “Russian Wealth” and other publications. The first collection of his poems was published in Moscow in 1889. During the poet's lifetime, 33 of his individual books and brochures (including reprints) were published. In Drozhzhin's "Autobiography" (Moscow, 1923) there is much evidence of the poet's interest in folk songs, which he deliberately imitated. Little-known composers wrote music to his texts: S. Evseev ( “Do not wormwood with dodder grass...”), W. Ziering ( "Reaper"), F. Lasek ( “Not from the frost, grass…”, “The day is burning to dawn...”, “What do I, young fellow, need…”), V. Bakaleinikov (, "Rural idyll", "Oh, what are you talking about, swallow...", ), M. Rolov ( "Rural idyll", "Oh, what are you talking about, swallow...", “Any Fun”), V. Rebikov ( "Oh, what are you talking about, swallow...", “The day is burning to dawn...”, "The heat of spring rays...", “Oh, if only there was sunshine...”, ), V. Bystroe (“To the Song”), A. Chernyavsky (“Lyubo-fun”, “At the Well” - introduction to the poem “Dunyasha”, “Beautiful maiden, you are my sweetheart...”), N. Sidelnikov (“Luchinushka”), N. Potolovsky ( "First furrow"). Many of Drozhzhin’s songs were popularized from the stage by singer N.V. Plevitskaya ( "Oh, what are you talking about, swallow...", “Oh, am I really young…”, "Rural idyll", “Any-fun”, etc.). In pre-revolutionary songbooks one can find “Violent Will”, “Oh, I don’t need any gold...”, "The Ploughman's Woe".
Songs and romances of Russian poets. - M.-L., “Soviet Writer”, 1965
DROZHZHIN, Spiridon Dmitrievich - Russian poet. Born into a serf family. I studied at school for “two incomplete winters.” From the end of 1860, for more than thirty years, he wandered around Russia in search of work, changing many professions: he was a sex worker, a bartender's assistant, a clerk, a worker, and a salesman in bookstores. He published since 1873. In 1896 he returned to his native Nizovka, where he devoted himself to his favorite pastimes - literature and agriculture. Drozhzhin has come a long way from a serf peasant to a participant in socialist construction. As a poet, he developed under the influence of folk songs and democratic literature of the 60s and 70s. Since the 80s, he became widely known as a talented “self-taught poet”, a writer of everyday life of the Russian village, as a person who embodied the spiritual purity and natural talent of the Russian peasant. In the pre-revolutionary period, Drozhzhin wrote in poetry about the need and grief of the working peasantry (“In the Hut”, 1882, “Winter Day”, 1892, poem "Mother's Confession", 1877), about the dependence of the poor on the rural bourgeoisie (“Into the Drought,” 1897), about the hopeless life of urban artisans, artisans - “yesterday’s plowmen” (“Songs of Workers,” 1875, “In the Capital,” 1884, poem “Night” , 1887). Keeping faith in better times, Drozhzhin dreamed of the coming of “brotherhood, equality and freedom” ( “Give honest impulses free rein”, 1879, "Swimmer's Song", 1906, "From darkness to light", 1912). He saw an example of fulfilling poetic duty in N. A. Nekrasov, believing that serving the people is the direct purpose of art. Drozhzhin was a singer of labor ( "The Worker's Song", "First furrow", "Autumn Festival", "Song of Mikula Selyaninovich") and native nature ( "Spring Kingdom", “There is still gray fog in the fields”, “I love the burning frosts”). He joyfully greeted the October Revolution, seeing in it the realization of the dreams of the working people ( “It’s winter again on a sled”, 1918, “Zapevka”, “At the meeting”, 1920, “Bayan”, 1923, "In memory of V.I. Lenin", 1924, "Shine on me, sunshine", 1926). Drozhzhin's poems are distinguished by their sincerity, immediacy of perception, simplicity and melodiousness. Many of them are set to music. F. I. Chaliapin performed two songs based on his words. The song “At the Well” (“The clouds were rushing quickly”) passed into folklore and was popular among partisan detachments during the Great Patriotic War. V. G. Korolenko, A. Serafimovich, M. Gorky spoke warmly about Drozhzhin’s personality and poetry. Drozhzhin was personally acquainted with the German poet R. M. Rilke, and wrote an article about him.
Works: Poems 1866-1888, with notes from the author about his life and poetry, 3rd ed., M., 1907; Poetry of labor and grief, M., 1901; Cherished Songs, M., 1907; Songs of the old plowman, M., 1913; Modern German poet Rainer Rilke, "The Path", 1913, no. 12; Songs of a Peasant, M. - L., 1929; Selected, M., 1948; Poems, L., 1949; Poems, M., 1958.
Lit.: Vengerov S. A., Sources of the Russian dictionary. writers, vol. 2, St. Petersburg, 1910; In memory of S. D. Drozhzhin (Articles, memoirs, publications), comp. L. Ilyin, Kalinin, 1951; Ilyin L., N. A. Nekrasov and S. D. Drozhzhin, in the book: Nekrasov collection, v. 3, M. - L., 1960.
L. A. Ilyin
Brief Literary Encyclopedia: In 9 volumes - T. 2. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1964
Drozhzhin Spiridon Dmitrievich - poet. Born in the village. Nizovka, Tver province, in the family of serfs of the landowner Bezobrazov. The poverty of his father’s household forces the poet from the age of 12 to go to the city to wander around “places”, and from that time his life for many years bifurcates between the city and the village. Drozhzhin returns to his homeland for permanent residence only after he achieves widespread literary fame. Drozhzhin is one of the first self-taught founders of poetry among the rural poor and the last representative of its peculiar “populist” stage.
The social existence of the rural poor in the 70s and subsequent decades, the time of Drozhzhin’s writing, was such that they could not understand the class structure of society, the class path of the proletariat, and even more so its role in relation to the village. Hence, in Drozhzhin’s poetry, on the one hand, there are the most general motives of discontent, complaints about the hard lot of the “working people,” about “darkness” and “moaning behind the walls of the prison,” on the other hand, the same general motives of the vague aspirations of the “light,” faith in the best of this “working people.” Specific features of this ideal of “free” life are the satiety and contentment of the small owner, the single worker.
In his themes, Drozhzhin is not limited to rural nature, everyday life, labor and the lot of the poor; he also sings about the life of a worker. It is clear that in these songs there is the same pity as for the lot of the village poor, only aggravated by the black colors of a huge stone factory, “where the hellish forge burns in the darkness and emits a serpentine thorn.”
Among the noise of big cities, Or in a distant remote village, Look for other poor people Among factories, chambers and palaces, In basements or in a stuffy shack. There you will hear the sighs and groans of a tired, torn chest, where people work in captivity and obedience is made law. ("Monologue")
The poet does not see ways for the development of the working class: “people are insignificant before the terrible power of machines” ( "From a worker's song"). The social existence of the rural poor determined not only the motives of complaints and hopes, but also the motives of rebellion, anger and hatred, as for example among S. Podyachev. But we will not find these sentiments in Drozhzhin’s work; they are muted in him by the motive of Tolstoy’s forgiveness, imposed on him by bourgeois ideology: “And we will conquer evil with love” ( "Night Thoughts" But still, possessing the talent for direct, truthful expression of the experiences of his social group, Drozhzhin rises above many poets “from the people” of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. As the founder of peasant poetry, he has undoubted merits and his place in the history of Russian literature. A. Revyakin Literary encyclopedia in 11 volumes, 1929-1939
DROZHZHIN Spiridon Dmitrievich was born [(3(18).XII. 1848, village of Nizovka, Tver province] in the family of a serf peasant - a poet.
In the fall of 1858 he was sent to school with a village sexton, from whom he learned writing and arithmetic for about two winters. The education of Spiridon Dmitrievich ended there.
In 1860 he was sent to St. Petersburg to earn money. He serves as a sex boy in the Caucasus tavern, where he first becomes acquainted with popular literature and low-quality magazines such as Mirsky Vestnik and Readings for Soldiers. Over time, Drozhzhin's circle of reading interests expanded, he visited the St. Petersburg Public Library, became interested in the poems of N. A. Nekrasov and A. S. Pushkin, began keeping a diary, and met democratically minded students.
At the age of 17, Spiridon Dmitrievich wrote his first poem and since then began to write regularly.
The poet lives in constant need, spending his last money on buying books. He dreams of university, but he did not have to study. In search of work, Spiridon Dmitrievich was forced to wander around the cities of Russia, changing one profession after another: he worked as a salesman in tobacco stores in St. Petersburg and Tashkent, a trustee for the supply of firewood for the Nikolaev Railway, an agent of the Volga shipping company "Airplane", a salesman in bookstores in Moscow and Kharkov and so on.
In 1870, he sent five of his best poems to the Illustrated Newspaper, but they were rejected.
In December 1873, his “Song about the grief of a good fellow”, and since then Drozhzhin begins to publish in the magazines “Delo”, “Slovo”, “Svet”, “Family Evenings”, “Motherland”, “Russian Wealth” and others.
In 1889, the first collection of Drozhzhin’s works was published. “Poems 1866-1888.” with the author's notes about his life", which contributed to the growth of his popularity, but did not strengthen his financial position.
At the beginning of 1896, exhausted by endless adversities, Spiridon Dmitrievich returned to the village of Nizovka and devoted himself entirely to literary work and agriculture. The poet's appearance in his homeland brought a lot of trouble to the local authorities. He was under secret police surveillance. His poetry collections are published one after another -
"Poetry of Labor and Sorrow" (1901),
"New Poems" (1904),
"Year of the Peasant" (1906),
"Treasured Songs" (1907),
"New Russian songs" (1909).
His poems are translated into foreign languages.
In 1900, Drozhzhin was visited by the translator of his poems, the German poet Rainer Rilke.
In 1903, the Surikov circle of “Writers from the People” organized an evening in Moscow dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the poet’s literary activity.
In 1910 the Academy of Sciences awarded him a prize.
In 1915 - for the collection "Songs of the Old Plowman"- honorable mention to them. A. S. Pushkin.
The poet met the October Revolution at the age of 69. Continuing to write poetry, he is involved in social work, traveling a lot around the country, giving readings of his works. Drozhzhin prepares and publishes new collections -
"Songs of Labor and Freedom" (1923),
"Songs" (1928),
"Songs of a Peasant" (1929),
“Roads and Roads” (1929), etc.
Spiridon Dmitrievich devoted the last three years of his life to preparing for the publication of the Complete Works in 4 volumes, completing "Notes on life and poetry" until 1930.
The theme of peasant life is the leading one in the poet’s work: “My muse was born a simple peasant woman,” he admitted in one of his poems (“My Muse,” 1875). He realistically depicts a pre-revolutionary village, clogged with poverty and grief (“Fierce Grief,” 1878; “In the Hut,” 1882; “On a Dark Night,” 1883), the plight of peasants suffering from tyranny and oppression by kulaks (“Into the Drought,” 1897). The poet sees “eternal need” not only in the village, but also in the city (“Songs of Workers”, 1875), although he does not go further than complaints. Spiridon Dmitrievich is familiar with the everyday life of the village down to the smallest detail. With great warmth he writes about the hard work of the common people (“In the Passion”, 1875), poetically glorifies Russian nature ( “I love the burning frosts...”, 1885). The theme of the homeland also becomes central in Drozhzhin’s post-revolutionary work. He welcomes the “long-awaited victory” - the revolution ( “Centuries of evil captivity have passed...”, 1918), sings about the “happy lot” of “free people” ( "After the storm again...", 1929).
One of his best poems - “For a long time I sang about the people”- the poet dedicated to the memory of V.I. Lenin.
Poetry of Drozhzhin S.D. developed under the strong influence of Russian democratic poetry (Koltsov, Nekrasov, Nikitin) and oral folk art, especially song lyrics.
Spiridon Dmitrievich introduces poetry from folk songs into his works (poems: “Dunyasha”, 1880; “Halt on the Volga”, 1880), and makes extensive use of folk poetics. His poems are characterized by negative comparisons, psychological parallelism, song symbolism, and so on. Many poems are set to music "The Reaper", 1871;
“Oh, what are you talking about, swallow...”, 1875;
“Any fun...”, 1890;
“Do not wormwood with dodder grass...”, 1894, etc.
The best poems have firmly entered the history of Russian poetry.
Died - Nizovka village, Tver province.
DROZHZHIN Spiridon Dmitrievich, Russian poet. From the family of a serf peasant. In 1860 he was sent to St. Petersburg to earn money, where he met A. S. Suvorin (in whose bookstore he served for some time), L. N. Tolstoy; in 1896 he returned to his native village. He was familiar with R. M. Rilke, who translated several of Drozhzhin’s poems into German and visited him in 1900. Member of the Society of Lovers of Russian Literature (since 1905); was the chairman of the Congress of Proletarian Writers from the People of the Tver Province (1919). Published since 1873 (the poem “Song about the grief of a good fellow”). Among Drozhzhin’s works is the autobiography “The Peasant Poet S. Drozhzhin in His Memoirs, 1848-1884” (1884), as well as over 30 books of poetry, including the collections “Poems. 1866-1888. With the author's notes about his life" (1889), "Songs of a Peasant" (1898), "Poetry of Labor and Sorrow" (1901), "Treasured Songs" (1907), "Songs of an Old Plowman. 1906-1912" (1913); collections of poems for children “The Year of the Peasant” (1899), “Native Village” (1905), “Four Seasons. A rural idyll for children" (1914), etc. Drozhzhin wrote not only about the hard lot of the rural and urban poor ["Songs of Workers" (1875), "In the Hut" (1882)], but also about the joy of inspired agricultural labor ["Rural Idyll" (1875), "The First Furrow" (1884)]. In Drozhzhin’s poetry one can feel the imitation of Russian folklore, as well as N.A. Nekrasov, I.S. Nikitin, A.V. Koltsov.
Works: Songs of a Citizen. M., 1974.
Lit.: The work of S. D. Drozhzhin in the context of Russian literature of the 20th century. Tver, 1999.
