Christian ideas, this should give them health, longevity, well-being, happiness, peace. Conversely, failure moral law can cause disease, premature death, dishonor and disgrace. In the real world, however, this is the case... churchmen "do not notice" that the meaning of these teachings in the Bible is unequal. moral requirements belongs to those that are alien to the interests of the working masses. In contrast to the collectivism of the working people...

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They become standards for him, with which he correlates his behavior. Consciousness of duty developed as moral a phenomenon expressing a person's desire to fulfill his duties to other people, to society. Conscience... theologians emphasize that a person's free will is relative: he only commits immoral acts on his own, in moral His deeds are helped by divine grace. The scientific understanding of the factors that determine the moral activity of people has revealed the illusory nature of...

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Encyclopedia of clinical medicine for several generations of doctors. In the Cultivation section, it says, “He who cultivates morally, does good deeds, will not suffer from serious illnesses or disasters. This is one of the most important ... so that restraint and complaisance become habitual, and the disposition is genuinely kind. In addition to improving in morality, it is important to change and moderate your habitual tendencies. A limited person is quick-tempered and withdrawn, it often happens ...

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Let's draw lots for who to miss. Material Interest remained silent and did not look away. "To avoid an unwanted conflict," she said then. Moral not without mental anguish - I myself will flatten myself - and you will be able to pass over me. Here only Material Interest opened his mouth. - It is unlikely that my legs will be comfortable for you ...

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Theories and practices. The importance of taking into account the psychological aspects of economic activity, the need to strengthen it moral fundamentals were clearly realized already in the pre-revolutionary period by many representatives of domestic economic and philosophical thought ... scientists. For the "new Russians" the benefit is often higher than morality and law. Characteristic features of their spiritual appearance: promiscuity in means, hypocrisy, cunning, cruelty. These qualities of theirs give rise to the mass development of such phenomena ...

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Activities and comprehension by the pupil of his life in relation to the surrounding reality. The basis of education, which determines moral development, is the formation of humanistic relations of children, regardless of the content, methods, forms of educational ... moral norms can be brought up only in the process of long-term practice of the child himself, only by exercising in moral deeds. Speaking of morality, we mean the behavior of people, a set of norms that regulate attitudes towards society ...

In social work, along with professional knowledge, the personal and moral qualities of a specialist, which are a determining factor in the success and effectiveness of their activities, play an especially important role. The style of behavior of a social worker, determined by the totality of his personal and moral qualities, his value orientations and interests, to a decisive extent influences the system of interpersonal relations. Therefore, the upbringing of spiritual and moral culture should occupy an important place in the process of training social workers. Only the optimal combination of professional knowledge and skills with a high spiritual and moral culture of a specialist is a necessary condition for his high qualification. www.edumask.ru

Morality, as a spiritual quality of a person, his need to bring good to people, is the core of the personality of a social worker. It is the moral qualities of a specialist that largely determine the behavior of the client, his social well-being and psychological state. Consider the moral and spiritual qualities that characterize the spiritual and moral image of a social worker.

The conscience of a social worker manifests itself as a moral feeling that allows you to determine the value of your own actions in accordance with your personal ideas about the good, the good and justice and contains both rational and emotional components. Conscience as a quality of a person is an individualized form of reflection of the requirements of society and a professional group for it. Conscience reminds the social worker of his moral duties, of the responsibility he bears to other people and to himself. As a moral regulator, conscience expresses a person's responsibility to himself as a subject of higher and universally significant values ​​and requirements and encourages creative activity that excludes the formal implementation of moral and professional norms.

Honesty is an important quality of a social worker. Honesty as a business, practical quality is expressed in the openness of thoughts, feelings and intentions of a specialist for other people. Honesty must be shown both in words and in practical actions. He is obliged to fulfill the promise given to the client. The social worker is obliged to truthfully inform the client about the ways and possibilities of solving the existing problem, without hiding the difficulties and mistakes made.

Attentiveness and observation are undoubtedly inherent in a good specialist. The social worker must feel and understand the full range of feelings and experiences experienced by the client. He is obliged to accurately assess the internal state of the client and organize interaction taking into account his well-being, mood and desires. Attentiveness and observation allow the social worker to make the most optimal decision in a given situation in a timely and correct manner.

Tolerance is a necessary personality trait of a social worker. It is expressed by specialists in the conscious suppression of the feeling of rejection of everything else that clients have. Tolerance predetermines a respectful attitude towards someone else's way of life, behavior, customs, feelings, interests, opinions, ideas, habits, beliefs of other people. At the same time, tolerance does not mean reconciliation of the social worker with negative ideas or actions of the client, which are capable of harming the client himself, those around him or society.

Tactfulness: due to the specifics of their activities, social workers deal with people who are weak, sick, socially unadapted, whose pride often suffers from the realization that they, having got into a difficult situation, cannot solve their problems themselves and are forced to receive social assistance. Therefore, tact as a personality trait of a social worker is vital and is conditioned by his activity. A social worker is obliged to foresee all the objective consequences of his actions or actions and their subjective perception by the client, colleagues, and other people.

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Moral character- these are the distinctive features of a person, his character, worldview and behavior and their compliance with moral laws. The moral character includes a complete list of positive moral qualities and the presence of negative ones in a given person. The moral character is a holistic characteristic of the personality, in the unity of its consciousness and behavior, internal and external. Sometimes in a person this integrity is manifested through a dominant character trait, for example, “moralist”, “lamb of God”, “pure soul”, etc. The moral character is described in the characteristics of the personality.

Moral image - a cumulative characteristic of the moral properties, traits and qualities of a person. The moral character, speaking as a whole, cannot be reduced to the sum of individual moral parameters and dimensions of a person (“a person’s shortcomings are always a continuation of his merits”). It is an inseparable unity of human consciousness and behavior.

The moral image of a person can be formed under the influence of the prevailing mentality of the era, under the influence of the social microenvironment.

The parameters of moral character largely determine the social adaptation of people to radically changed living conditions.

The dominant moral value, the motives of behavior are at the basis of the selection of moral types of personality. This typology is conditional, there are no evaluation criteria and are not absolute.

consumer type. The most immoral type. A person of this type considers morality a means of obtaining benefits. It is the benefit that is the main and only motive of behavior. Moral deeds are one of the useful varieties, they should lead to success, happiness, goals, the acquisition of goods, and therefore to happiness, which is the main value of this type of personality. The position of the individual - strives for happiness alone, and only having reached, begins to share recipes with others. This type is active.

conformist type. Easily influenced, his morality depends on the approval or condemnation of others. The main value is a sense of community with the social environment. The main moral value is collective happiness. The main thing is to act like everyone else. The autonomy of morality is poorly developed in it.

aristocratic type. This type of personality is characterized by responsibility for actions not to society, but to oneself. The personality type opposes any social conventions and rules if they disagree with his conscience. This type is asocial, its orientation is individualistic, the moral value is freedom. He is tolerant until his personal freedom is encroached upon. The source of moral rules is the inner voice of conscience.

Heroic type. The hero always struggles with circumstances, other people, with historical events. The main values ​​are the struggle for justice. He is very active, opposes everything that could not stand comparison with the ideal, with the idea of ​​absolute goodness, however, there is a problem that, having started the fight against some particular injustice, he begins to fight the whole world, i.e. there is a danger of falling in love with struggle for the sake of struggle, therefore the main problem for this type is the problem of choosing goals and means. This type takes an active life position, pays attention to rational standards of behavior and, in general, has a high moral orientation.

religious type. Believers and even atheists can be attributed to this type. The main thing for this type is the feeling that he walks under God, professes morality in the face of God, i.e. can directly come into contact with the highest values ​​and meanings. From this it follows that one comes to morality individually, not collectively. Commandments are norms that determine the regulation of human behavior. The main moral value is the meaning of life. The motive of behavior is a moral feeling, identical to love. This type of personality is active and by its behavior tends to search for the meaning of life.

Ideal

Spiritual and moral ideals of the individual serve as a role model. Society imposes on people certain requirements of moral behavior. Its bearer is precisely moral ideals. The image of a morally highly developed personality embodies those positive qualities that serve as a standard for relations and behavior between people. It is these characteristics that make a person in particular and society as a whole improve their moral character, and therefore develop. The ideals and moral values ​​of different times differed from each other. Many famous thinkers and poets raised this topic in their works. For Aristotle, the moral ideal consisted in self-contemplation, knowledge of the truth and renunciation of worldly affairs. According to Kant, inside any person there is a "perfect person". The moral ideal is the instruction for his actions. This is a kind of internal compass that brings a person closer to perfection, but at the same time does not make perfect. Each philosopher, scientist, theologian had his own image and his own understanding of the moral ideal.

Moral ideals undoubtedly contribute to the self-education of the individual. A person, by an effort of will and understanding that the goal must be achieved, strives to achieve and conquer the heights of the moral plane. Moral ideals are the basis on which moral principles and norms are further formed. All this happens on the basis of interests in human life. The life situation in which a person lives is also important. For example, during the war years, moral ideals were focused on the image of a courageous, valiant, noble person who owns weapons, but uses them only to protect his land and his relatives.

The understanding of the moral ideal has spread to the whole society. A person dreams of seeing himself in a society that will be built on humane and fair principles. In this case, the ideal is the image of such a society in which it is possible to express the interests of certain social groups, their concepts of higher justice and the social structure that would be better.

The moral indicators of the social ideal consist of the equal distribution of life's blessings among the members of society, the correlation between human rights and duties. The highly moral elements include the abilities of the individual, his place in life, his contribution to public life and the amount received in return for it. Moral ideals determine positive indicators of life and the ability to achieve a happy existence. In striving for perfection, which is the ultimate goal of all efforts, man and society must use only highly moral means.

Practical part.

How does technological progress affect the formation of the spiritual and moral image of modern man? This question is much more relevant than it might seem at first glance, because no matter how developed a society is, it still remains a society of people. And therefore, the basis of everything is the internal state of a person, his worldview, ideals and principles.
It is always difficult to speak globally. Let's focus on ourselves. What is the face of modern Russian man? Many people thought about this very difficult question, in particular, Alexander Sergeevich Panarin, who always wrote about Russia and its fate with a special feeling.
Let us outline the main features of our contemporary. This appearance is surprisingly similar to the one that the West paints for us, because it is he who is associated in our minds with progress. Here we can distinguish three main criteria for success: material wealth, position in society and personal comfort. Every mortal aspires to this, considering it well-being, the highest of values. Looking more closely, however, one can make sure that all three are reliably connected by one thing - money. This, of course, is no coincidence, because Western philosophy is based on the concept of pragmatism, that is, the division of everything into two simple categories - “profitable” and “not profitable”. Oddly enough, it really works, justifying itself quite well in achieving the aforementioned well-being, and moreover, it frees the mind from “unnecessary” questions and philosophical dilemmas. The “successful man” believes that everything in life can be achieved on his own, he despises “losers”, believing their stupidity to be the culprit of their failures. In the words of Alexander Sergeevich: “In this perspective, those who are among the “golden billion” are increasingly contraindicated in the Christian heritage of philanthropy, selflessness, and compassion. For with such a heritage in the soul, it is impossible to build one's well-being against the background of others sinking into hopeless despair, it is impossible to put forward impenetrable barriers for the rest around one's oases of a "worthy life". Only by recognizing the latter as unworthy, lowering their human status, can one develop one's progress and nurture one's well-being with a clear conscience. How accurately this reflects reality! But for us, a Western man has long passed from an image into a model.
Today Russia is part of a global community, and you and I have access to all the cutting-edge innovations, science, technology and culture. This cannot but influence the formation of the consciousness of those who are trying to live "in step with the times." With great regret, you notice around you, among your peers, dislike for your native country and exaggerated admiration for the West. Moreover, the bitter motive sounds more and more clearly - "Russian means backward." Our cultural identity is stubbornly equated with underdevelopment, making it ridiculous, successfully instilling unnatural shame for its origin. We can say that there is no betrayal here, just cowardice, but isn’t it the worst thing - when we have “little soul”, and we live with it.
Of course, before drawing any conclusions, it is necessary to go deeper into the history of the formation of the Russian mentality. Without taking into account the Proto-Slavic period, although its legacy in some places has become very firmly embedded in our lives, it can be said with certainty that the history of Russia has always been inextricably linked with Orthodoxy. Education in the spirit of meekness, humility, mercy, sacrifice - all this is surprisingly in tune with our soul and even more so with our nature. Poets and writers felt this especially keenly. In the poems of Sergei Yesenin, there are so many amazingly beautiful images of the “faith of nature”, for example, from the poem “Autumn”:
"Schemnik-wind with a cautious step
Creasing leaves on road ledges
And kisses on the rowan bush
Red ulcers to the invisible Christ"
Russian people were primarily God-fearing, but at the same time they always felt the nearness of God and His love. In the West, also Christian, the relationship with God is somewhat different. This is expressed in the architecture of the temples. Russian churches are squat, the lines are smooth; their churches, on the contrary, are sharp and skyward. The fact is that in the Western tradition, a person rises to God, and in the Orthodox tradition, God descends from heaven to a person. And this is very important. Orthodoxy never humiliates the dignity of a person, this is a priori impossible, since the Son of God incarnated in human form, infinitely magnifying him, and the state of humility is necessary only because it protects us from the harmful thought of pride, to which our weak essence is so greedy. The first alienation from the church and a turn towards the West took place under Peter the Great. In the words of Alexander Sergeevich, “Imperial Rome is embodied in St. Petersburg, the capital that turned away from the Orthodox East and turned towards the West. And Moscow has become the personification of the "outgoing Russia", mournful, feminine. “Petersburg absorbed everything masculine, everything rationally conscious, everything proud and violent in the soul of Russia. Russia, Moscow, the village, the long-suffering land, the wife and mother, giving birth, bent in labor, inexhaustible in tears, remained outside of him. In the future, alienation from Orthodoxy only increased. The apogee of the division was the revolution. Painfully symbolic was the execution of the Royal family - the rejection of God, the utmost distrust of Him, and the subsequent destruction of churches, exile and executions. But any division fades into the background in the difficult years of the war. And here the image of a Russian man comes to the fore again - a simple soldier who loves the Motherland as his own mother, who gives his life with true Christian sacrifice, not caring for glory. "Your name is unknown - your feat is immortal." It is amazing how this is consonant with the image of Russian saints. Looking at their lives, we see the ultimate renunciation of oneself, bodily exploits, the rejection of everything that brings joy to the human heart, but for what? Only in order to become extremely humble to become a transparent vessel for the Holy Spirit, so that God speaks and acts through them, so that He comforts and heals others. Thus, having outlined the main milestones in the development of the Russian mentality, one can form a general impression and understand the reasons for our relations with the West, with which, as already mentioned, we associate the concept of progress. Achievements of science and technology by themselves cannot affect the state of the soul. However, they very successfully help in obtaining money and, accordingly, well-being, and this is precisely what determines the spiritual and moral state of each of us. The idea is stubbornly cultivated that not only technology, but also spirituality is becoming obsolete, that "a new person needs a new philosophy." Does truth get old? In the context of globalization, the exchange of scientific experience also leads to the integration of cultures, which is hardly possible in the light of the historically established qualitative differences between East and West.
Today we are writing a new page in history, the life of many of us is not inferior in quality to "developed countries", and there is nothing wrong with that. I would like to say only one thing: regardless of anyone's opinion, we can and must preserve Russia by communicating, developing, adopting new things, but not betraying ourselves.

November
P.S. A purely subjective opinion. No claim to genius.

Anatoly Fedorovich Koni

The moral character of Pushkin The speech dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the birth of Pushkin, read on May 26, 1899 at the solemn meeting of the Academy of Sciences, was first published in Vestnik Evropy (1899, No. 10) with a dedication to P.N. Obninsk. Under the title "Pushkin's Public Views" and in a slightly modified form, it was included in the book "Honoring the memory of A.S. Pushkin by the Academy of Sciences on the hundredth anniversary of his birth. May 1899", St. Petersburg, 1900 and printed separately (St. Petersburg, 1900 ). With editorial corrections under the title "The moral character of Pushkin" is included in the book by A.F. Koni "Essays and Memoirs", St. Petersburg, 1906, and then reprinted with minor amendments in the fourth volume of the book "On the Path of Life" (Revel - Berlin, ed. "Bibliophile",). This last lifetime text is published in this edition. Part of the speech (mainly the second half, with abbreviations) is repeated with additions in the report read on February 17, 1921 in the House of Writers at a meeting dedicated to the 84th anniversary of the death of the poet (published in the book "Pushkin. Dostoevsky", St. Petersburg, ed. . House of Writers, 1921). Some of these additions appear in the notes to the respective pages. A poet with a multifaceted soul - Pushkin was not only a brilliant artist, but also a great phenomenon in Russian life. In recognizing precisely this significance of it, Gogol, Belinsky and Dostoevsky converge among themselves - from different points of view. But great phenomena, both in the realm of moral nature and in the realm of physical nature, have one thing in common: one can never say of them that they have been fully studied. Their deep meaning, their power and impact on the environment is never revealed suddenly and immediately. Therefore, Pushkin - an incomparable exponent of the fundamental principles of the national spirit, a powerful and inspired master of his native language, a thinker and a singer, a historian and a citizen - is an inexhaustible material for study. In his spiritual nature, with the maturation and expansion of Russian thought, with the closer acquaintance with everything that relates to him, new horizons open up. In this he resembles his favorite historical hero - the great Peter. Literature in its true meaning begins with it - the exponent of the properties and needs of society and the herald of its hopes. Whichever side you explore, you almost always have to go upstream to Pushkin. Nothing was foreign to him; his sober, penetrating and exclusivity-free mind, armed with the power of genius of expression, responded to all the manifestations and questions of life around him and threw sparks at every touch, and his deep love for the motherland, full of feeling, but devoid of sensitivity, forced him to delve into everything conditions of her life and history. Polonsky rightly said about him: " This is a genius - who loved everything, contained everything in himself ...". Therefore, leaving aside instructive questions about Pushkin's work, about his immortal merits for the Russian language and literature, about his artistic " Credo", it is possible to dwell on his legal views and, using his writings, letters, notes, as well as the memories of him Smirnova, Prince Vyazemsky and others, try to peer into his attitude to one of the most important aspects of society. Pushkin was filled with feelings and search for truth.But in life, truth manifests itself primarily in sincerity in relations with people, in justice in dealing with them.Where it is a question of the relationship of a whole society to its members, of limiting their personal freedom in the name of the common good and of protecting the rights individuals - this justice must find expression in legislation, which is the higher, the deeper it peers into the vital truth of human needs and opportunities - and in justice administered by the court, which is the higher, the more alive, and not formal relationship to a person's personality.That's why - justitia fundamentum regnorum!(Justice is the basis of the state (lat.)) But law and morality are not alien or opposed to one another concepts. In essence, they have a common source, and their real difference should consist mainly in the compulsory obligatory nature of law in comparison with the free practicability of morality. Hence the connection of legal views with moral ideals. The tighter it is, the more the reasonable development of society is ensured. The law, however, has its own written code, which indicates what is possible and what is not. The morality of such a code can be ng - and looking for what needs to be done in this or that case, a person has to question his conscience. The inner voice, called conscience, flows out of many people from principles that are invisibly, but inextricably linked with faith, with their religious system. In this voice, they hear the expression of the will of a higher being, the consciousness of connection with which and responsibility to which so lifts and strengthens the soul of many in moments of worldly confusion. Moral principles, drawing their strength from religion, penetrate from different sides into the realm of law. The inscription on the building of the old town hall in Lugano: " Quod sunt leges sine moribus, quod sunt mores sine fide"(laws without morality - the same as morals without faith (lat.)) - has its own deep meaning. Therefore, speaking of Pushkin's legal views, it is difficult to avoid the need to get acquainted with his moral views and his attitude to matters of faith. Thus, the moral image of Pushkin is created by itself. The deepest attention and careful development of details should be devoted to studying it. Probably, someone's talented forces and unrestricted time will be given to such work. We will confine ourselves here, on the occasion of the great poet's centennial anniversary, to only the most brief and cursory outlines of this image.Short-sighted and hasty to conclude readers of Pushkin's youthful works, written in " hours of fun or idle boredom", - in which, in his own words, " vicious fun was sung and networks of voluptuousness were famous", - created a fairly firmly established reputation for him not only as an erotic poet, but also as a caustic denier of faith. They were helped in this by some highly virtuous friends of the poet's youth, whose " treacherous hello"chased him beyond the grave, - in oblivion of his words, that" to judge an adult for the guilt of a young man is a terrible thing". One of them, whose moderation and accuracy, with memories of the already extinct poet, was unpleasantly struck by the absence of not only " smooth, systematic conversation", but even" decent tailcoat", proclaimed that Pushkin did not have " no outer or inner religion and laughed at all relationships". But in this idea of ​​​​Pushkin and in the ill-conceived or hypocritical reproaches arising from it - there is no truth. It is necessary to look deeper into this side of Pushkin's personality - and judge a person and a writer not by accidental manifestations, but by the fundamental properties of his nature. Disorderly home education in a rather careless family gave the youth an early opportunity to be poisoned by the dope of frivolous works of French literature of the 18th century. An echo of this was the appearance of three or four imitative works. Everything else in this frivolous kind was falsely and without any criticism written in the passive of Pushkin's poetry. his conscience, forced to blush for himself, indignant " into your sinful tongue, and idle, and crafty", - and burn their handwritten lists that came across to him. Like any strong nature, he could not help but go through a period of wandering thoughts before settling on a more or less solid worldview. Written by Pushkin, 18 years old, "Unbelief" contains clear indications painful doubts that he experienced at that time... All his sympathies are already on the side of faith, and he would like, " forgetting about the mind, both weak and strict, with faith alone, bow down before God"But he himself, still not fully believing and hesitating, he already understands that not a word of condemnation, but a word of compassion should be addressed to" blind sage", wherein " the mind is looking for a deity, but the heart does not find"Moreover, we must not forget that a person with a prosaic nature is easier and more likely to become a complete whole than one with the makings of a genius. True religious feeling is primarily the result of personal life tests. Only having endured and survived them, it can be considered strong. the side of faith was accomplished by Pushkin in the twenty-second year of his life. From his tormented soul, delusions disappeared, just as " paints alien over the years subside with decrepit scales". From that time on, we see in him an already fully formed view, to which he remains true to the end. In his soul, not only faith in a higher mind that controls the universe shines with unfading light, but also, - using Lermontov's expression, - " proud faith in people and in other life", i.e., into the sublime aspects of the human spirit and into its immortality. That " pure atheism", an indication of the lessons of which in the intercepted letter was accompanied by a heavy and decisive punishment for him, never took possession of him. He disgusted his mind and heart. " You are an incomprehensible gloom to the heart, a shelter for the despair of the blind, insignificance - an empty ghost - I do not thirst for your cover" he exclaims, adding: " You are alien to the thoughts of man, you are afraid of a proud mind". He told Khomyakov that questions of faith surpass reason, but do not contradict it - and thought a lot about them." I found god in my conscience and in nature that spoke to me about him", - he explained to A. I. Turgenev, converging in this with Kant, whom, of course, he did not read when in the gardens of the Lyceum " willingly read Apuleius" . "If a person attacks the idea of ​​God and finds him in his soul, then he exists., - Pushkin developed his view in conversations with Smirnova, - you cannot find what is not there, and the strongest fantasy still comes from existing forms". Therefore, he laughed at the stubborn efforts of the extensive argumentation of the deniers of the existence of God." Why such efforts, if it really does not exist?"- he asked. Pushkin treated the Bible and the gospel with the greatest interest. He was fond of them and thought deeply about their content. Recommending the son of his friend Prince Vyazemsky to read the books of scripture intently and constantly, Pushkin called them " key of living water"Noticing that the gospel is so interpreted, explained and preached everywhere that it no longer contains anything unknown to us, he pointed to its ever new charm for all those satiated with the world or plunged into despondency ... In conversations with Barant, enthusiastically Speaking about the Bible and especially about the gospel, he, regarding the aspirations to bring the meaning of the holy and eternal book under the measure of temporary human differences and directions, said: " We all bear the burden of our life, the yoke of our humanity, so subject to error - and this yoke equalizes everything; Christ commands us to take up his yoke and burden, which will help us to carry our own to the end, if we help our neighbor to lift and bear the yoke under which he fails. The whole law in a few words. There is only one, the only great power - love!"Thus, he was not only a believer, but also a Christian in the best sense of the word. His religiosity was manifested not only in individual verses and whole works, amazing in form and power, such as, for example, the transcription of the prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian ("Fathers - hermits and wives are blameless"), not only in the image of the mighty faith of Kochubey, not shaken by his bitter end, but also in forms illuminated by popular feeling. creative gift and all-encompassing soul". He prayed for them and served memorial services for the servants of God - Peter and George. This Peter was the one." eternal worker on the throne"whom he sang with such power, understood with such love, - this George was" master of thoughts", Lord Byron .... Pushkin attached great importance to Christianity. He considered its appearance a great spiritual and political upheaval of our planet." In this sacred element he said, disappeared and the world was renewed - ancient history ended with its appearance". The history of the external expression of Christianity-the church, its position and tasks stopped Pushkin's thoughts. He appreciated the merit of Russian monasticism, which preserved historical monuments and kept chronicles among the general darkness; he severely condemned Catherine II for " power-hungry pleasing to the spirit of the times", expressed in a clear persecution of the clergy and deprivation of its independent state, which dealt a blow to its independence and its promotion of public education. Recognizing one of the most important tasks of the church to preach the teachings of Christ, Pushkin saw in the latter and one of the means of appeasing the Caucasus conquered by us at that time Speaking, in his Journey to Arzrum, about taming the hatred of the Circassians towards us - by disarming them or instilling in them more refined needs - he notices that there is, however, a stronger, more moral means, more consistent with the enlightenment of our century, - the preaching of the gospel, which Russia did not even think about until the mid-thirties. He places missionary work very highly. " We must gird ourselves and walk in peace and the cross", - he exclaims and draws examples of holy elders, men of faith and humility, wandering through the deserts in rags, often without shoes, shelter and food, but animated by warm zeal. " What reward awaits them? he asks: the conversion of an aged fisherman, or a wandering wild family, or a boy - and then need, hunger, martyrdom"... "Seems he concludes, it is easier for our cold laziness, instead of a living word, to pour out dead letters and send silent books to people who do not know how to read and write, than to be subjected to labors and dangers, following the example of the ancient apostles and the latest Roman Catholic missionaries"Attaching high importance to missionary work, Pushkin demanded, however, that, going with the preaching of Christianity, it should, at the same time, be filled with the Christian spirit of love and patience." Tolerance is a very good thing. he wrote, but is not the apostolate with her?"Indicating the need to go in peace, he branded the gloomy image of the peculiarly famous Yuryev Archimandrite Photius for serving him" a spiritual tool - a curse, and a sword, and a cross, and a whip ..."and in his wonderful imitations of the Qur'an he advised:" Calmly proclaim the Qur'an without forcing the wicked!"Conscious faith - and such undoubtedly lived in Pushkin's soul - penetrates the inner world of a person and is reflected in his relationship to people. According to Khomyakov's deep thought, it is one of the highest social principles, for society itself is nothing but a visible manifestation of our inner relationship to other people and our union with them... Therefore, Pushkin's beliefs and his view of the meaning of the gospel teachings had to inevitably be expressed in his attitude towards people and in the demands made on them and on himself.There was no place in his soul not only for crude selfishness, which, to the best of its ability, sacrifices to its lusts everything that is possible, without disdaining any result, but also for a more refined egoism, which creates the habit of always and under all impressions, first of all, thinking exclusively about oneself. S. Turgenev in his "Poems in Prose" left us the image of an egoist, armed with complacency of an easily acquired virtue, which is worse " frank ugliness of vice". The repulsive features of this image are so cold that they kill the possibility of ridicule. Creating it, the artist followed the thoughts of his beloved teacher Pushkin, who characterized selfishness as a phenomenon often disgusting, but by no means funny, because he " remarkably prudent". This last property requires a certain restraint and self-control. When they are absent, egoism loses its invulnerability to laughter." There are people- says Pushkin, - who love themselves with such tenderness, marvel at their genius with such rapture, think of their well-being with such tenderness, of their displeasures with such pity, that egoism has all the ridiculous side of enthusiasm and sensibility in them.". The sermon of noble altruism and moral obligation in relations with others to think about them, about their suffering and human dignity is clearly and definitely heard in the works of Pushkin, outraged by the arrogant look at people whom "we revere only zeros, and ourselves as ones." " seidhart"(Be cruel (German).) Zarathustra would not have found a response in a poet who admired his duty, before forgetting himself for the sake of others. Severely treating Napoleon and reconciled with him only by death, Pushkin nevertheless speaks of him with enthusiasm when the one to revive the faded gaze and give birth to vigor in the perishing mind, " plays with his life before a gloomy illness and coldly shakes hands with the plague"The meaning of the final stanzas of his famous poem lies in the opposition of duty to egoism, where duty is personified by Tatyana's deep inner sacrifice, called by Pushkin his own" sweet ideal"and the representative of egoism is Onegin" with his immoral soul, selfish and dry, with his embittered mind, seething in empty action"... This view of the attitude towards people is reflected in Pushkin's entire personality. She breathes kindness and active love. Voice" meek pity"is heard not only on the pages of his works, but also in the impulses of his heart, making him an eternal intercessor for the needy, for the unfortunate. Gogol appreciated this trait in him and says that Pushkin was looking for opportunities to be useful to someone and enjoyed every minute of favor to Emperor Nicholas himself, in order to hint - and never about himself, but always about another, unfortunate, fallen. He himself, however, was unhappy and often needed to ease his worldly and spiritual bonds. A hint of his position would be natural and understandable, but Pushkin seized on the favorable cases pointed out by Gogol solely with the thought of others, no matter how hard and insulting he himself lived at that time. How he revived and flared up, - Gogol writes to Zhukovsky, - when it came to alleviate the plight of some exile or to lend a hand to the fallen". Many examples of his benevolent troubles can be cited in less important cases. So, for example, forced to confess that he was at the ball of the French embassy not in a uniform, but in a tailcoat, he silences his legitimate pride; decides to become a petitioner and solicit before " by his Cato"about a pension for the widow of General Raevsky; so, he asks Benckendorff for permission to study in the state archives of Pogodin, not protecting enviously and greedily access to one historical treasure opened to him, as many would do in his place. He is busy with the Academy of Sciences about publishing in in favor of the family of the murdered writer Shishkov of the latter’s works; writes to Prince Vyazemsky, asking him to urgently apply for a financial allowance to a young scientist, and instructs brother Leo, himself in the forced seclusion of the village of Mikhailovsky and in an extremely cramped financial situation, to subscribe to several copies of the book published by subscription by a blind priest translation of the book of Jesus the son of Sirach... When the Neva, " like a wild animal, rushed to the city" and " Petropolis surfaced like Triton, immersed in water up to the waist", - Pushkin writes to his brother:" This flood is crazy for me. He's not funny at all. If you decide to help some unfortunate person, help out of Onegin's money, but please - without any noise, neither verbal nor written". A strict and impartial literary connoisseur and judge, who demanded from the writer a serious and thoughtful attitude to the subject of his work, Pushkin was at the same time alien to a petty feeling of jealousy for the success of fellow writers and an unfriendly attitude towards him. " Knowing how to despise - he knew how to hate", but he did not know how to envy. Suffice it to point to his relationship with Mickiewicz, to his assessment of Kozlov, to the correspondence with the poet A. A. Shishkov, - finally, to the sincere joy with which he welcomed the works of Baratynsky, how ardently he defended them from the indifference of the public and the attacks of routine criticism, in warm terms, giving the author one of the first places in contemporary literature, along with Zhukovsky and above Batyushkov. " I transfer my rights to you with a bow - so that you shift the passionate maiden to magical tunes - foreign words", he proclaims, referring to " the first Russian elegiac poet"whose every verse" sounds and shines like a gold coin"and more of which" no one has feeling in their thoughts and taste in their feelings". Mickiewicz, having already broken forever with Russia, nevertheless with a grateful feeling recalled Pushkin and his closeness with him. Their thoughts, according to the Polish poet, rising above the ground, connected like two rocks, which, being separated by the force of the stream, bow Pushkin, in the eyes of Mickiewicz, was the personification of a deep mind, fine taste and statesmanship.Pushkin's poetic silence, in which many saw a sign of the exhaustion of talent, concealed, according to Mickiewicz, great omens for Russian literature, in which, according to his apt and correct remark, Pushkin was never an imitator of Byron - a Byronist, but was an independent figure who only temporarily felt attracted to the great British poet - he was a Byronic. bullet, - " that dealt a terrible blow to more than one Russia", - to create among a number of outstanding works such a unique thing, in its originality and grandeur, in European literature, as an amazingly beautiful scene in Pimen's cell in "Boris Godunov". a tribe alien to him", corresponded to Pushkin's attitude to" inspired from above" and " looking down on life from above"singer. He sincerely admired his talent, education and versatile knowledge, spoke with enthusiasm about him, translated his works ("Voevoda", "Budrys and his sons"), read his poems to him and dedicated him to the plans and ideas of the conceived creations. When Zhukovsky said to him one day: " You know, brother, after all, over time, perhaps, Mickiewicz will shut you up in the belt", - Pushkin answered him:" You don't say that: he's already shut me up!.."- and he himself then repeated this expression of his. Not with words of irritation, he later answered the familiar voice of the poet who had become hostile, reaching from afar, but with a plea for sending peace to his soul .... Even to people who were unsympathetic to him, he tried to treat fairly. do not point to the noble defense of them in 1830 by Polevoi v. inexcusable"Pogodin's attitude towards him and" frenzied battle" Kachenovsky about the "History of the Russian people" - and if later Pushkin's reviews of Polevoy lost the necessary calmness of impartiality, then this was caused by the latter's attacks on his friends and mainly on Delvig. Pushkin attached great importance to friendship, understood her seriously and believed her sincerely. He distinguished this, in the words of Cherbulier, "love without wings" from those relationships that arise in " light heat of a hangover", among the exchange of vanity and idleness and, hiding behind the name of friendship, are expressed only in familiarity and unceremonious climbing into someone else's soul or into " disgrace patronage". That friendship, the idea of ​​which is scattered in many of his works, is a persistent, unchanging, selfless feeling, " with an unsleeping hand"Sustaining a Friend" in the moment of death over the hidden abyss"reviving his soul" advice or reproach"healing his wounds and able to break" slanderer's despicable vessel". He was true to this idea in life as well. It is worth pointing out his touching appeals to Chaadaev, to Pushchin. Manifestations of friendly affection touched him deeply and left an indelible mark on his soul, " My first friend, my priceless friend!"- he writes to Siberia to the noblest I. I. Pushchin, who visited him" disgraced shelter"in Mikhailovsky." What a pity that Pushchino is no more now!"- he says on his deathbed. In moments of worldly sorrows, alien to the slightest envy, Pushkin knew how to console himself" the enjoyment of tears and the happiness of friends"and never renounced the latter before anyone, firmly and fearlessly showing his attitude towards them, despite the fact that his greetings had to fly" deep into Siberian ores"and in" dark abysses of the earth". If these distant friends saved Pushkin for Russia in their time, carefully and prudently not attaching him to their plans, then among those around him there were those who paid resentment for the heat of his soul, "confident and tender". Them " treacherous hello" deeply wounded his impressionable heart. He could repeat the words of Saadi in Gulistan: " The enemy threw a stone at me, and I was not upset - a friend threw a flower - and it hurt me". Next to such hidden grievances and abuses " holy friendship power"apparently caused by the pained sounds of indignation in his "Insidiousness" when he happened to " with your sad eyes to read everything secret in a dumb soul"the one he considered a friend and condemn him" final verdict". Such was Pushkin's attitude towards people. Let's look at the moral requirements that he made, first of all, to himself. These requirements are largely determined by what a person recognizes as necessary for maintaining self-respect. With his sensitive soul, Pushkin could not help but realize that only persistent and serious work and complete truthfulness with oneself and with others can maintain self-respect in a person and protect him from secret self-contempt in those moments when he is not entertained by the petty variegation of everyday life. All his life was imbued with love for work. " demanding artist"remembered fondly" living and constant, though small labor", "silent companion of the night, friend of golden Aurora". He felt the obligation to work and eagerly awaited his beloved autumn solitude, when " the forest drops its crimson dress"and you can take up with renewed strength for fruitful work. No wonder " in the rustle of the night"is heard by him" reproach or murmur to them of a lost day"; no wonder he bitterly recalls" wasted years"and he's worried" the ghost of the irretrievable days" during the time when " days counted by fate"especially dear to" think and suffer and therefore to work mentally. Hence the numerous corrections in his manuscripts and variants of his verses, hence the persistent work on the language, in order to make it flexible like steel and sweet like sugarcane. Allah says to his prophet: " Didn't I endow your tongue with mighty power over minds?". For this power, however, not one form is needed, but also content, thoughtful and heartfelt, poured out of the soul and enclosing a wealth of thought in the avarice of words. This content in a poetic work is then only strong and deep when it is the fruit of inspiration, which must be distinguished from a transient mood. Pushkin himself pointed out the difference between inspiration and delight, explaining the first by spiritualized work, and the second by a fleeting impulse. " tormented for hours and days", making countless corrections in each verse - which is completely wrong and is refuted by Pushkin's manuscripts. So, for example, in the manuscript of the famous poem "October 19", consisting of 24 stanzas and 184 verses, only 73 were corrected for 1069 words. This same kinda admirer" marvelous talent"the poet recognizes it necessary to convey to posterity that" moreover, Pushkin wrote only in moments of inspiration, and such were forced to wait for whole months", not understanding what he is doing, against his will, a precious indication for Pushkin of the sublime nature of his work, obviously mixing poetry with bureaucratic and clerical work. And love for truth reigns in Pushkin's work - for that highest truth that seeks and draws the ideal of human actions, and not to that lower one, which depicts everything within the limits of the fact, without looking "woe" and into the distance and idly pleasing cold mediocrity, envious and greedy for temptation. frankness, Pushkin himself was an example of them, following the advice from his "Imitation of the Koran": "Be of good cheer! despise deceit, follow the path of truth cheerfully!"The lie was hateful to him to the point of forgetting his own danger. His bold indication to the Governor-General Miloradovich of which of the" impermissible poems" in the manuscript belongs to him is a witty remark to Benckendorff's request about whether Uvarov is meant in "Recovery Lucullus" - and, finally, the frank affirmative answer to Emperor Nicholas, in 1826, in Moscow, to the question of whether he would have participated in the rebellion on December 14 - serve as one of the many examples of his unconditional and untrembling truthfulness. This love for truth and sincerity made him appreciate whole people, not even agreeing with all their views, but respecting their directness and lack of double-mindedness in them.He repeatedly referred, in conversations, to that place in the Revelation of St. John, where the angel of the Laodicean church says: " I know your business; you are neither cold nor hot; oh if you were cold or hot! But since you are only warm, and not hot and not cold, I will spew you out of my mouth!"On an equal footing with whole people, he also valued whole feelings, to which a person surrenders without a prudent look back. Everything ostentatious in this regard, as can be seen from his letters, revolted him - any publicity of a good deed disgusted him." Trading conscience before pale poverty, do not rash your gifts with a prudent hand", do not squeeze " envious hand", - he advises. How severely he would react to representatives of the type of charity acrobats that has developed so much in modern society, who can stick to a living and lofty cause - and often kill it! He had, noted by Prince Vyazemsky, a hatred for fake science and hypocritical morality... In a note on education, presented to the sovereign in 1826, he rebelled against the teaching of falsified history and, true to his veracity, at a time when it was customary for pupils, for example, to report that Napoleon was simply an enterprising general who was indignant against the king, - indicated the need to explain the difference between the spirit of peoples, the source of needs and state requirements, do not cheat, do not distort republican institutions", and make a correct assessment of historical figures without an officially predetermined view of them. This is not the place to analyze Pushkin's historical views and works, but one cannot help but notice that they are imbued with a desire to find the truth and, in view of the extremely weak development of contemporary Russian historical science, are often vivid examples of a kind of retrospective intuition, thanks to which Pushkin defined figures, events and epochs of the distant past with fidelity and depth, possible only for those who are thoroughly familiar with the material comprehensively developed in the course of half a century since his death. did not allow external brilliance to obscure the truth in Pushkin's eyes and at the same time did not allow him to forget about cultural conditions - spiritual and material, among which historical figures had to live and work, or to fall into oblivion about the mores and customs of the time, which so often forced us to it is wrong to cover amateur historians, and then about to appreciate this or that historical image. Solovyov and Pavlov's studies on Boris Godunov, all the most important works on Peter the Great, almost all the rich conclusions of our historical and literary criticism appeared after Pushkin, and yet how much of what they proved and established was felt by Pushkin and clothed in wondrous artistic images and definitions! How subtle are his remarks about the attitude towards the teachings of the encyclopedists of Catherine II, who at first encouraged these "games of skilful fighters" with her royal applause and saw with concern their triumph in life; - how meaningful in its conciseness is the inner picture of Alexander's Russia in "Dubrovsky"; - how fair, in the conversation recorded by Smirnova, are the comparative assessments of Peter and Catherine and indications of the national mistakes of the latter. The outward brilliance and successes of Catherine's reign did not mislead Pushkin about what was hidden behind them. He was completely attracted to that worldly and historical truth that the personality of Peter breathes. " He alone is a whole world history", - Pushkin writes to Chaadaev. The monument to Peter is modern Russia, which " entered Europe like a launched ship", - he says, pointing to the irreversibility of Peter's reform and drawing him himself in such a way that he stands before us as if alive, among the shipyard, in battle, at the feast. us in unforgettable features a moral warehouse, appearance and great thoughts " glorious helmsman, by whom our earth moved". But Pushkin was not blinded by a sense of affection for Peter and Russia. He had an ardent love for Russia and faith in her inseparable from a sense of truth, which did not allow him to turn a blind eye to its shortcomings and other people's virtues. He wanted to see his homeland become related to The West in all its best, but retaining its original forms, containing all its good. Sometimes angry expressions of his letters, a sad exclamation when reading Gogol's "Dead Souls": " Not a fun thing Russia!"- only on a preconceived view can they run counter to this love and faith in " high lot"of the Russian people. The shortcomings of a beloved creature always cause sharper outbursts of mental pain precisely because it is loved and that you want to see it better and above all. Proud of the modesty of the Russian person and the greatness of everything that he did on the initiative of Peter, Pushkin nevertheless bowed before the virtues of mankind. He was alien to narrow patriotism, hostile, arrogant or askance looking at everything foreign. Pointing to tolerance for strangers, as one of the beautiful sides of a simple Russian person, he spoke of the need for respect for humanity and its noble aspirations. " It is not enough to have only local feelings, he said to Khomyakov, - there are thoughts and feelings universal, universal"... Truth, according to Pushkin, should be permeated not only by personal, but also by the entire state activity of the ruler. In truth there is a great attractive force, in it is also a true criterion. The ability to understand this is one of the properties of a truly great historical figure. No wonder Peter " rightfully attracted hearts- and, thanks to his ability to appreciate her, " Dolgoruky was distinguished from the violent archer before him"... But the balance of spiritual forces and a receptive sense of living reality forced Pushkin to see the excitement for the search for truth in a feeling of love, which is characterized by understanding and condescension. Therefore, he did not consider it possible to find this truth in extremes. If it is not in the wreaths of flatterers, then for sure it is also not in unconditional denials. " No persuasion he writes, in reproach, and there is no truth where there is no love!"Outlining such requirements, Pushkin was able to distinguish the essential and eternal in man from the accidental and external, he highly set his vocation and separated his tasks from the inevitable conditions of his personal life and from the fatal gifts of nature, called passions. " Craven dive"in worries" vain light"didn't drown out for him" divine verb", and he shook off these worries under a breath of inspiration. But he was still the descendants of a close one who " I thought in chilled summers about my sultry Africa". This heat lived in his blood, made itself felt in the ordinary hours of life and in the youth of the poet, in the form of" greedy sin", chasing him on his heels. But even then he did not drown, enjoying himself, in this sin, but" fled to Zion Heights", never losing sight of them, not forgetting their existence. Faithful to Russian folk qualities, he treated himself as a person negatively and even with exaggerated self-condemnation." It is not difficult to despise the court of man he writes, it is impossible to despise one's own judgment". Therefore, his attitude to his past was different than that of most people of his social position. In the years of the coming calm of passions, he did not look with secretly envious indulgence at the hobbies of his young days. Punishing himself for them, in " anguish of heartache", he woke up and evoked painful memories, poisoning them" visions of the original, pure days". The sobbing sounds of his "Memories" when he "s disgusted reads his life"and bitter tears cannot wash away" sad lines", - serve as the best proof of this. But, mercilessly scourging himself, he, however, strictly separated his personality from his vocation. " Vorontsov thinks that I am a collegiate secretary he writes, but I believe something more about myself"... This more consisted in the calling to be the prophet of one's homeland," verb to burn people's hearts"and hit them" with unknown strength". He was aware of the role and responsibilities that fell to his lot in the spiritual development of Russia, in preparing her bright moral future, in which he believed fervently, like Peter," knowing the destination of the native country". When from his sad solitude he was, in 1826, summoned to Moscow, where an unknown and disturbing resolution of his fate awaited him, even then he did not doubt his vocation and took with him poems that began with the words: " Rise, rise, prophet of Russia, put on a shameful robe! .."Many essential conditions of his personal life and even the volume of the content of topics for his work could depend on earthly power, but not his" purpose ". He was in his own eyes" God's Chosen Singer"who, for the good of the country, cannot and must not" keep silent, downcast eyes"... Pushkin's attitude to the demands of his conscience and his early, thoughtful insight into the essence of the reasonable conditions of human existence, into the needs of the heart, into the rights of thought - determined his view of the main manifestations of justice, as the implementation of public conscience, expressed in justice and legislation Already a twenty-year-old youth, he expresses a certain view in this respect, which he then remained faithful to for the rest of his life. Admiring solitude, he learns " to find bliss in truth, to idolize the law with a free soul, to murmur not to heed the unenlightened crowd and respond with participation to a shy prayer". This is a whole program, all the more remarkable, the less it fit the framework into which personal and social life in Russia then willingly fit. The movement of legislation and the questions of a historical and social nature raised at the same time were extremely interested in Pushkin. proof of the depth of this interest. They contain many remarks of a critical nature and indications of everyday features that are so important for the legislator. Between them there are experiments on drafting various measures caused by social needs. From them it is clear that, referring to such issues with the liveliest attention, Pushkin wanted to see the law reconciled with worldly truth and the necessary personal freedom, wanted to see a person not as a slave of a compulsory order incomprehensible to him, but as a servant of the reasonable requirements of the community. Thought is a great word, he says. - " What is the greatness of man if not thought! Let it be free, as a man is free: within the limits of the law, with full observance of the conditions imposed by society". This reasonable freedom, built on respect for the rights of the individual, on the recognition of the rights of an organized set of individuals - society - is " holy liberty", which Pushkin contrasts with what he calls " madness of disastrous freedom"Despite the relative proximity of the French Revolution, the picture of which for the most part still left a vague and coherent impression, he, with his characteristic understanding of the historical perspective and the ability to define in a nutshell, established, in relation to political freedom, a profound difference between" with the lion's roar of the colossal Mirabeau"and actions" sentimental tiger - Robespierre". Real freedom cannot be based on violence - it is " goddess pure", and her " healing vessel"shouldn't be" covered in a veil of blood". She perishes if, in oblivion of her true meaning, they attack " bursts of violent blindness"and then over her" headless corpse"an executioner may arise" despicable, dark and bloody". Drawing to himself the ideal of social life, " where the saint is strong with liberty - powerful combination of laws", Pushkin saw in this combination the necessary conditions and a guarantee of peace and further development of society. A powerful law should be the patron of the weak, a reasonable bridle for those who, like Aleko, " for himself only wants will", - and a spokesman for the legislator's understanding of the innate rights of the human soul. Hence the requirements for strict deliberation and humanity of the law. Pushkin points out the need to find calmness of a mature thought in the law and not meet the personal tastes and moods of the legislator in it. " Worthy of surprise he writes, the difference between the state institutions of Peter the Great and his temporary decrees. The former are the fruits of a vast mind, full of benevolence and wisdom; the latter are often cruel, capricious and, it seems, written with a whip. The former were for eternity, or at least for the future; - the second escaped from the impatient, autocratic landowner"Demanding humanity in the law, Pushkin already in his early youth knew how to show a precious sense of true justice - equally necessary for both the legislator and the judge - consisting in the ability to put oneself in the place of another and understand his feelings in one or another position. He was embarrassed abstracted from life, the inexorable cruelty of certain laws, which strikes the innocent and oppresses " gentle voice of nature". At the age when they least of all think about the fate of children who are the result of ties condemned by law, he was touched by their unfortunate fate and, with surprising depth for his age, described all the tragic moments in the life of a child redeeming the "hobby" of his parents: - his alienation from of all, loneliness, languid, sad thoughts, curses on fate, envy of those who knew the caress of a mother, cruel reproaches of strangers and complete " unrighteous and terrible lawlessness". The sensitive soul of the poet outlined to the legislator a high task, consisting in alleviating the plight of such children. Fate did not send him the joy of seeing the implementation of his ideas. He did not live to see the philanthropic steps taken in this regard by our legislation in the last decade. Pushkin's childhood passed among the landlord environment, largely due to serfdom, which was one of the foundations of the then social system. But the ennobling influence of the Lyceum, the moral atmosphere that Pushkin began to breathe after his father's house, and the influence of people like Engelhardt and Kunitsyn, " nurtured the flame"pets of the Lyceum," who created them and kindled a pure lamp in their soul", - did their job. Noble seeds fell on noble soil. Coming into life with intent " dedicate souls to the motherland beautiful impulses", Pushkin had to inevitably and painfully face various manifestations of the possession of "souls", based on the right enshrined in law and supported by strict punishments. In " a haven of tranquility, work and inspiration - to a deserted corner, to the bosom of happiness and oblivion", where the twenty-year-old poet was resting, mournful echoes from another, close, surrounding world invaded - and the poet was in no hurry to leave them, cowardly covering his ears and closing his eyes. His heart, true to love for people, started up and, among personal happiness, sang " piercingly dull verse"the misfortune of neighbors with overwhelming force: Not seeing the tears, not heeding the groan, Chosen by fate for the destruction of people, Here the nobility is wild, without feeling, without law, Appropriated by a violent vine And labor, and property, and the time of the farmer. Leaning on an alien plow, submitting to whips, Here skinny slavery drags along the reins Relentless owner. Here, everyone drags a burdensome yoke to the grave, Hopes and inclinations in the soul not daring to feed, Here young maidens bloom For the whim of a depraved villain. Sweet support of aging fathers, Young sons, comrades of labor, From their native hut they go to multiply Yard crowds of tortured slaves. The picture of the gloomy sides of serf life, drawn by Pushkin, is so complete that he had nothing more to add to it later, although his peals of indignation would have been enough for a long time. We have already pointed out that fate was cruel to his best hopes. To use his own expressions, it can be said that, with regard to many improvements in public life, he was condemned to " wingless desire"what's in his chest" a barren fever burned". He did not live to see the passionately desired moment to see " slavery, fallen by the mania of the king", and did not survive with all the best people of the Russian land the great day of the liberation of the peasants, from which his happier friend, Prince V.F. Odoevsky, proposed to start counting the New Year in Russia. Meanwhile, the liberation of the peasants was, as you know, a sincere desire According to Smirnova, he, in a conversation with Pushkin, reproached Boris Godunov for attaching the peasants to the land and Leibniz for the fact that, conferring with Peter the Great on the "table of ranks", the German scientist did not point out to him the injustice of serfdom. The bureaucratic and legislative routine, based on the stubborn immobility of society and on the fears created by the "shy imagination," posed constant obstacles to the decisive steps of the sovereign. With regard to the peasant question, he did not find sympathy and honest support for himself in the closest executors of his will. Even people like, for example, Admiral Mordvinov, " shining, - according to Pushkin, - and valor, and glory, and science", about which in many respects one could say: " This old man is dear to us", - justified selling people alone as a way," by which a slave from a fierce landowner can accidentally pass to a more philanthropic master"Under these influences, the autocratic will was limited to superficial measures and influence in isolated cases, in the hope of the personal kindness of soul owners. Pushkin repeatedly pointed out the unsuitability of any half-measures in this respect, then laughing at the Order based on the fact, " so that the master's berries are secretly - the evil lips do not eat - and they are busy singing - an idea of ​​\u200b\u200brural simplicity", and over the generous replacement" the yoke from the old corvée - easy dues"; - now talking about the misfortunes of the family life of the people, as a result of forced marriages; - then drawing the image of a philanthropic tormentor who wanted to accustom the peasants to all kinds of suffering, in order to then gradually return their property and bestow rights. Faithful to his high vocation and love for the motherland, Pushkin portrayed from different sides, the unworthy state in which serfdom was kept by the majority of the Russian people.In both historical notes of 1822, he speaks of the great danger that the implementation of oligarchic plans would threaten Russia, mainly because the means of emancipating serfs would be difficult or completely destroyed people, and only one terrible shock could destroy inveterate slavery in Russia. Pushkin proclaimed in fiery verses about his thirst to see " people unoppressed"and living under the cover of enlightened freedom," he called, he hurried the onset of this time ... With this onset, he had bright hopes. " After the liberation of the peasants, we will have open trials, jury trials, greater freedom of the press, reforms in public education and in public schools.", - he said to Sobolevsky. Serfdom in everyday life was based on domestic, arbitrary and often unbridled reprisals. His view on " violent vine" Pushkin expressed in a note on public education, filed with Emperor Nicholas, which spoke of the need to abolish corporal punishment - to instill in the pupils the rules of honor and philanthropy in advance, so that too cruel education would not later turn them into executioners, not bosses. Public life is swayed by crimes. A punishing law is necessary - but it is very important that its blows do not hit a person in vain, do not hamper his personal life, as long as he does not show himself as a violation of other people's rights. To Pushkin's bright mind, this truth - sometimes vague even for some legislators - seemed clear. " Law comprehends he says, some crimes, and not the personal life of a person, leaving vices and weaknesses on the conscience of everyone", - and thus puts an exact definition of the boundaries of the punishing law. Attaching great importance to the voice of conscience in a person, Pushkin, like Dostoevsky, saw in it the first and most powerful expression of internal punishment, from which neither distance nor " fun fighting noise" , nor the practical "sayings", despite the fact that they seem surprisingly useful, " when we can't come up with anything to justify ourselves". Caused by discord with conscience, "internal anxiety" does not fall silent at all easily and its noise can become deafening when the voice of conscience joins it, " unexpected guest, annoying interlocutor, rude lender", - and when this " clawed beast"begins" cross your heart". This voice poisons life during the day, inhabits the night with horrors. Pushkin's Boris surprisingly characterizes the inner state of a person with a bad conscience, so " and I'm glad to run - but there is nowhere ... terrible!" - "I am not a villain- says Pushkin in his "Dream", - with excitement and longing I do not see bloody ghosts in a dream ... and at a late hour a terrible, pale fear does not frown sullenly in my head"Depicting these consequences of a crime that cannot be defined by the law, Pushkin thought about the ways in which a person often leads to a crime, and in the development of a criminal idea in him to the final determination. The origin of the crime is beautifully depicted in The Robber Brothers. First, orphanhood and loneliness, lack of childhood joys, then need, contempt of others, then " envy cruel torment"finally oblivion of timidity and" ... conscience driven away!"But it can be driven away, but it cannot be destroyed. She," tiresome"will wake up on a hard day. The image of the victim animated by her will become relentlessly before her eyes, and" decrepit cry"The latter can become terrible ... Pushkin has the deepest psychological observations regarding the crime. He notes, for example, those incomprehensible internal contradictions of the soul captured by a destructive thought, which sometimes amaze practicing lawyers. Such is the blacksmith Arkhip, locking people in a house set on fire, answering to the pleas for their salvation malicious " how not!"and at the same time, with the danger of life, rescuing a kitten from the roof of a flaming barn in order to" don't let God's creature die". Pushkin is also aware of those painful moods, under the influence of which the commission of a criminal deed resolves the clouded mind and heart from the heaviness that crushed them, causing a feeling of relief and even pleasure." My heart is oppressed by some unknown feeling", - says the Miserly Knight, unlocking the chest in his " secret basement"and as always" falling into heat and trembling"... and explains that he feels the same that, according to the assurances of doctors, people feel - " find pleasure in killing", - when a knife is thrust into the victim: - " nice and scary together". Salieri, mortally jealous of Mozart, seeing that he trustfully drank the glass of poison brought to him, cries and says:" I shed these tears for the first time: both painful and pleasant, as if a healing knife had cut off my suffering member!"... To restore a violated right, to impose a well-deserved punishment, a court is needed, obliged to strive for possible truth, as far as it is available to man on earth. But the methods of finding and the very understanding of this truth are different depending on time and on the development of the social environment. Pushkin concisely but skillfully paints pictures of the patriarchal court and the domestic court. " Leave us, proud man! We are wild, we have no laws. - We do not torment, we do not execute, - we do not need blood and groans, - but we do not want to live with the killer", - says the old gypsy man Aleko, who killed his wife and rival. Otherwise, the court is going on in the Ozernaya fortress." Ivan Ignatich, - instructs the captain Mironova, - take Prokhorov and Ustinya apart - who is right, who is wrong. Yes, punish them both"... Modern Russian court did not satisfy Pushkin. Even in the poems of his youth, he expressed disgust for " hooked podyacheskoy people only with bribes to the rich and sneaks to the stronghold", and found that in a civil court " common sense is a guide rarely correct and almost always insufficient"In view of the fact that our then temple of justice was constantly defiled by too well-known abuses, Dubrovsky's nonsense is significant. When he is offered to sign" your complete and perfect pleasure"under the decision by which he was robbed in favor of a rich and powerful neighbor, he is silent ... and suddenly, in a rage, in a sudden attack of madness, he wildly shouts:" How! Do not honor the church of God! - Heard a case - kennels introduce dogs into God's church! Dogs run around the church!"... The true court, according to Pushkin, is only where it first of all applies equally to everyone the law equal for all - where" stretched out to all"laws" a solid shield, where, clenched with faithful hands, - citizens over equal heads, their sword slides without choice, - where crime resounds from above with righteous scope", - where, finally, the judges are not only honest, but also independent, so their hand is incorruptible" neither to gold with greed, nor fear". The righteousness of the scope, which the poet speaks of, must undoubtedly first of all be expressed in a living attitude towards the personality of a person, not allowing indifference to his fate, requiring deliberate and fair measures of research and reasonable measures of punishment. It was from this point of view that Pushkin looked at administration of justice. It should be vital, not abstract, and not give in its practical implementation reasons for the use of words put by Beaumarchais in the mouth of Figaro: " I hope for your justice, although you are the representative of justice". Therefore, he lovingly stops not at the deacon, in the orders of the gray-haired one, who " calmly looks at the right and the guilty, listening to good and evil indifferently, not knowing either pity or anger", - but on Beccaria, whom he studied and considered " the greatest philanthropist of his time". Questions of legal proceedings were of great interest to him. He clearly understood that true justice is higher than formal law and sometimes eludes the monotony of mechanical rites - that the court, not free in its sentences, judging only on pre-established evidence, without the initiative of judges, anxiously aimed at finding truth, very often can only serve as proof that summum jus - summa injuria(the highest right is the highest injustice (lat.)). He was embarrassed, for example, by the importance that the formal court attached to the defendant's own consciousness. He was going to write a story about two women executed at Nuremberg - Maria Schoning and Anna Garlin, innocently convicted according to all the rules of art, on the basis of their own consciousness, given under the threat of torture, in a fit of despair and in the enthusiastic hope of a less painful life after the grave - consciousness , which the judges did not bother to check. Drawing preparations for a search and torture in The Captain's Daughter, he severely condemns his own confession, to which our pre-reform criminal law attached importance " the best evidence in the world". "To think that the criminal's own confession is necessary for his full denunciation- says Pushkin, - the idea is not only unfounded, but also completely contrary to common legal sense: for if the denial of the defendant is not accepted as proof of his innocence, his confession should still be proof of his guilt". While, in the eyes of the majority, the punishment was based on the principles expressed by the words: " By deeds a thief and flour" and " So that, looking at it, it would be disrespectful for others to do it", - he looked at the punishment for a crime as a means of correction, and not solely for causing suffering or even death to the guilty. The punitive measures that prevailed in the 18th century seemed cruel to him. " Everywhere scourges, everywhere iron!"- he exclaims, characterizing " disgraceful laws", expelling " bondage weak tears". In remarks on the Annals of Tacitus, citing the story of the Senate's awarding Fabius Serenus to imprisonment on a deserted island, which Tiberius opposed on the grounds that a person who has been given life should not be deprived of ways to maintain it, - Pushkin exclaims: " Words worthy of a bright and philanthropic mind!". Justice alone, however, is not enough for the scope of the punishing sword to be righteous. True and broad justice must be expressed in a humane attitude towards the guilty. Never before has an example of such humanity and compassion been harmful. In looking at this property of justice, Pushkin is completely agreed with his famous polemicist, Metropolitan Filaret, who wrote in 1840: " A criminal must be treated with Christian love, simplicity and indulgence, being wary of everything that destroys or offends. The crime is low, but the person is worthy of pity". The idea of ​​meek pity, mercy and forgiveness permeates a lot of the works of our poet. We can say that this is one of the main notes of his creative thought. Already his youthful imagination, when an excess of vitality and love for struggle was still boiling in him, in an alluring moral beauty paints a picture of the winners, who fought merrily and menacingly, shared tributes and gifts, and sat down with the vanquished for friendly feasts (1817). Peter is attractive to him, caressing " glorious captives"of his own and raising a healthy cup for his teachers (1828). But the great monarch is especially dear to him and understandable when he puts up with a subject, releasing guilty guilt, having fun," and forgiveness triumphs like victory over the enemy"(1835). Pushkin deeply understood the enormous importance of steps towards reconciliation with an offended and suffering soul and the beneficial effect of generous and wide forgiveness. He experienced for himself, as under" the mysterious shield of holy forgiveness"be silent" stormy feelings boiling in the heart - and hatred, and dreams of pale revenge"... That's why " sly flatterer"capable of inviting trouble, seeking to limit the mercy coming from the height of the throne - that's why the Pushkin patriarch in Boris Godunov blesses the Almighty, who settled in the soul of the great sovereign" spirit of mercy and meek patience"- that's why our great poet all his life" with participation answered the shy plea", and has a proud right to the love of the people already for the fact that he sang with his wonderful, unsurpassed verse - mercy, considering it the calling of the king, and considering it his task" call for mercy on the fallen"... In this feature, they can see a contradiction with chanting" swear glory". But the idea of ​​​​him as a singer of this gloomy glory is wrong, as well as many other ideas about him. He was never a fan of war, as a means to gain glory. His mind and humanity rebelled against concepts devoid of internal content , so dear to people sometimes. Almost all of his songs dedicated to the war date back to the early twenties, when the circle was still full of " sacred memory of the twelfth year"and the charm of the just sustained struggle for people's independence, for a position obtained by centuries of effort and sacrifice, which allowed the Russian people to experience" high lot". What was written later was caused by the impressions of the beginning of the uprising of the Greeks against the Turkish yoke and the ensuing struggle that captured the hearts of the peoples and governments. And in both cases it was not about obtaining swear glory, but about the living conditions for the existence of two peoples - about the motherland and about " land of heroes and gods". "Arise, O Greece! rise up- exclaimed Pushkin, - the country of heroes and gods, - break the slave chains - with the singing of fiery verses - Tyrtheus, Byron and Riga". The pictures of the battles drawn by him also cannot testify to his taste for what Pirogov called" traumatic epidemic". Not indifferently and indifferently, with the cold precision of an experienced battle artist, he paints a terrible picture of the Poltava bloodshed when they merge" clicks, gnashing, neighing, groaning and death, and hell from all sides". He sees in him an inevitable sacrifice to fulfill the destiny of Russia, a formidable path to " northern citizenship"achieved by victory over a neighbor who enviously and arrogantly interfered with its development and introduced war into its internal regions." Patchwork of these victorious banners" dear to him, as indicated " imperative facets"for those who would like to limit the political identity of Russia, the roads, as if they were blowing over a Russian soldier, along with whose selfless courage Pushkin noted with admiration the absence of hatred for the enemy and vanity with victories. He, in his own words, was not attracted by the glory threatening" with a bloodied finger", - did not captivate at all" abusive fun"which" you can't love", - and if in 1821 he had a desire to break out into the war, it was only because in " death with a formidable expectation"he thought to stifle the anguish" their habitual thoughts", from which faded, as " victim of evil poison". But even here he felt that he would not be born in him." blind glory passion - ferocious gift of heroes". Terrible expectation of death and readiness to die for the homeland, capable of arousing envy of those, " who walked past us to die", - seem to him the necessary conditions for war, and not at all a thirst for someone else's death. Napoleon," seated as a king on the tombs", was hated by him. In his thoughts about the hard share of the war, he hears not the rapture of victory, which resolved the old dispute, but the sounds of reconciliation." In the struggle, the fallen is unharmed"- he shouldn't" behold the angry face of the people's nemesis" and " hear the song of resentment from the lyre of a Russian singer". With the onset of adulthood, some pictures of the world and the inner life of a person chain the poet's thought to themselves, and he "eagerly listens"To Miscavige Talking About" times to come, when peoples, having forgotten strife, will unite in a great family". It is significant that the celebration of Pushkin's birthday took place at a time when, on the other side of Europe, in the quiet capital of Holland, there is still a very weak dawn of the realization of this lofty hope. There is no need that the sky above the rays of this dawn is still covered with clouds of selfish, hard-hearted stubbornness, misunderstandings and insincerity. It is enough that these rays have already flashed ... Once the dawn has dawned, the sun will certainly rise! Such is the law of physical nature, such is the law of moral nature. Let our poet exclaim in this respect, enthusiastically: " You, holy sun, burn!"- will turn out to be a prophet ... Pushkin's moral and everyday formula included a very difficult to implement part:" Murmuring do not listen to the unenlightened crowd". The poet himself found that" of course, it is not difficult to despise each fool separately ... - but what a wonderful thing! - all together to despise and it is difficult"... It was hard for him to live in his contemporary society, where he had to bear his love for truth, his own" murmuring eternal soul"into a soulless environment" evil without mind, without pride arrogant"dragging out boredom," like a chained slave of a dead man", and resting on a feeling of hostility and on virtuoso slander in relation to anyone who mentally or morally rises above their level. At a time when it seemed impossible for the poet to consider that " goodness, laws, love for the fatherland, rights - just sonorous words", he also had, in a letter to Chaadaev, with heartache to note with us" lack of public opinion, indifference to duty, justice and truth"thanks to which such conditions of life are created under which individuals," as he wrote to Prince Vyazemsky, " we do not ripen, - a dry or rot". Deep disgust for this environment, embracing him from all sides, in almost all manifestations of the then meager social life, lived in Pushkin's soul." Go away! What does a peaceful poet care about you!"- he said to the people of this environment, considering them to be part of the "crowd" and not at all designating by this name the people, in contempt for which people who deliberately did not want to understand him tried to reproach him. His entire creative life, dedicated to the spiritual service of the people, loudly cries against such an accusation! He could not despise the people who wrote: " The flatterer will say - despise the people!". By the crowd, he meant everything low, no matter what stratum of society it belongs to - all those who eagerly read the memoirs and notes of prominent people in order to find delicate revelations or confessions - and in their baseness rejoice at the humiliation of the high, the weaknesses of the mighty because " he is small and vile, like us"! - "Lie, scoundrels!- exclaims Pushkin - he is small and vile, but not like you - otherwise!". There is, however, a big difference between theoretical denial and practical renunciation. Appreciating this crowd, recognizing that " worthy of equal contempt - her vain love and hypocritical persecution", Pushkin, it would seem, logically should have reached invulnerability in relation to her. But in reality, among the everyday conditions in which he was almost hopelessly placed, his soul, trusting and tender, was open to the malicious hissing and sophisticated abuse of the secular crowd The receptive nature of the poet and his sensitive self-esteem opened this " cold"crowd the opportunity to constantly strike his heart" irresistible grievances"slanderous legends built on fictions aimed specifically at insulting his human dignity - to bring Pushkin to thoughts of suicide and a request for exile in Siberia or imprisonment in a fortress. It can hardly be doubted that Emperor Nikolai Pavlovich in his own way appreciated poetic gift of Pushkin. He, in the beautiful expression of the latter, " honored his inspiration and freed his thought", - and Smirnova's notes, in addition to various other data, contain interesting indications of the sympathetic and attentive attitude of the sovereign to the great Russian poet. The exalted soul of Pushkin was not ashamed of the feeling of gratitude and knew how to experience it, especially since, guided by his bright mind and love for the truth, he knew how to separate the good intentions of the Russian Tsar from their practical implementation after they had passed through an environment hostile to the poet of crafty advisers and performers. to the crowd and its influential representatives. His mind, "loving space," crowded out everyone who was not afraid of mediocrity alone. His independence and self-reliance irritated the bearers of opposite properties and "caustic" to their eyes. In an environment where quest and patronage were powerful levers of success , the personality of a man who was clearly burdened by his official and so coveted title for many and said: " Rien que je sache ne degrade plus que ie patronage"(Nothing humiliates like patronage (French)), - could not but arouse envious malice. If Pushkin wanted to enjoy the benefits of life in the form that most of those around him understood them, he should, like Mirabeau, exclaim:" Mon Dieu, donnez moi la mediocrite"(My God, make me mediocrity (French)). The consciousness of his vocation did not allow him to bow his proud forehead either before the crowd, or before individual moral nonentities" in majesty wrong"or even before clever uselessness. Having learned not to envy this greatness, he armed his carriers against himself, then scourging them" fiery satire" , then, according to Baratynsky, " clinging to their eyes At the same time, in personal relationships, thanks to his passionate sincerity, he, of course, forgot the rule of worldly caution, advising not to treat with contempt anyone who cannot be respected, and not to disclose his personal shortcomings (always exaggerating them, as this was his custom), in oblivion that, in any case, there are friends for this, and that people rarely understand the existence of weaknesses accessible only to the strong. Therefore, fatigue from the conditions of his existence and activity was completely legitimate and natural in him. was so constrained in his work by intermediaries between him and his crowned censor that he received Benckendorff's remark for printing "Anchar" with censorship permission, and in 1835 he had to, in a petition filled with irony and suppressed anger, humbly ask the censorship committee to settle his relations to censorship... It got to the point that he had to hide the name of the author when printing The Captain's Daughter, "The Bronze Horseman" was banned. Thinking deeper and deeper into the tasks of life and his vocation, sometimes not finding a correct assessment and understanding of his motives even among friends and offended by two-faced, seasoned with vulgarity praises and poorly hidden malice of contemporary criticism, Pushkin thought to find rest and renewal in family life . He looked seriously at the position of women in society. A woman is a toy of passions, limited in her civil rights, placed in the position of an adult child, not a friend and comrade, not a "co-worker" in her husband's life - a phenomenon that has a detrimental effect on the entire social organism. Pushkin was clearly aware of this, and more than once, in various forms, pursued the emptiness of women's life in secular society, pointing out in his notes, letters and Roslavlev the complete spiritual equality of a woman with a man, requiring a serious attitude towards her. He was imbued with a deep respect for family life and for marriage, " The dependence of family life makes a person more moral", - he wrote. It would be too naive, in the fair opinion of Professor Kirpichnikov, to defend the young poet from preachers of common morality, who, proud of their cheap virtue of cowardice and dispassion, accused him of finding poetry in a friendly meal or succumbing to charm feminine beauty." Zion Heights"always stood before him. Ruslan and Ratmir of his youth, Tatyana of his mature years - show that this charm did not obscure the family ideal in him." Keep faithful hearts - for neg legitimate and bashful", - he says, 24 years old, and the greedy desire for happiness sounds in all his correspondence from the second half of the twenties. The image of captain Mironova he created in 1833 and her touching words before Pugachev's attack describe Pushkin's lofty look at " consortium omnis vitae"(commonwealth for life (lat.)). If his conscious and deliberate choice was unsuccessful in the sense that it tied him even more tightly to secular society and" harnessed a horse and a quivering doe to one cart"- and if therefore he did not find the complete responsive harmony of domestic happiness, then one can only regret it, but it is unfair to burn with cheap indignation against the one he himself called" the purest beauty the purest pattern"and whose right to his tender, trusting love he solemnly testified in the face of death. In the poison of the last years of his life, the same slander is guilty, which, hiding for a while and changing colors like a chameleon, found in the very way of life of a family belonging to the world and subject to his conventions and vain customs, new food for himself. In one of his martial speeches, the famous Bright said: " Can an honest heart and a lofty mind remain calm, feeling that they are hated when one would like to enjoy a well-deserved love - and listening around oneself to the thin whistle of slander, a snake crawling in darkness, so that there is no way to strike it!?“It was precisely this slander directed at Pushkin that crept into his family life and wrapped itself around him in an indissoluble ring. Poisoning his heart, confusing his mind, she betrayed him to the painful torments of suppressed anger and the consciousness of her helplessness against the dirty invasion of idle slander into the “holy of holies” his soul. To break this ring and - to restore the necessary calm could only be a departure from St. Petersburg and the new impressions associated with it. He was attracted by Rome, Byzantium and Jerusalem - about which he would like to write a poem - he even rushed to distant China, but the man, whose insidious and hypocritical "friendship" was, unfortunately, entrusted by the sovereign of Russia with her first poet, kept him, like Prometheus, chained to the gray and cold Petersburg rock and left the kites to maliciously torment that heart, about which Pushkin himself had already said: " It's time! It's time! Rest the heart asks!". Unclean hands armed a slanderous pen against him, and his fate was decided. The denouement could not be otherwise. Pushkin was too wholesome in nature to continue to live in the twilight of questioned family happiness in order to come to terms with a situation that might seem ambiguous. He belonged to people who follow the advice of the French thinker: " On traverse une position equivoque - on ne reste pas dedans"(they get out of an ambiguous situation - they don’t remain in it (French)) Under the conditions of contemporary social life - the duel was, unfortunately, the only way out of this kind. Those who condemn Pushkin for this and would like to see him" not a ball of prejudice"apparently they do not clearly imagine the subsequent picture of life" husband of honor and mind", faint-heartedly plugging his ears amidst the growing impudent contempt of society, breaking out of which, at the first desire, depended not on him. But even here Pushkin's moral image flared up brightly for the last time. Fading away, he did not share the grief of Kochubey, who had to" to rush into the arms of death, not bequeathing enmity to anyone to their villain", and demanded from his friend and second Danzas a promise not to take revenge on Dantes, forgiven by the dying. Thoughtfully touching on social ulcers and revealing them, Pushkin was looking for their healing. He realized that not only a punishing, but also a creative law is not enough for this. A free development of the spiritual forces of the people through public education and true enlightenment. The lack of education of share, mind, character is always the root of many evils in personal life; the lack of enlightenment of the people is the source of evil in state life. Only a crafty flatterer, according to the poet, can say that " enlightenment fruit - debauchery and a certain spirit of rebellious". It is in vain to attribute any kind of human madness to an excess of enlightenment. On the contrary, education alone can protect against social disasters," thought Pushkin, "and referred to the significant words of the 1826 manifesto about the disastrous influence of not enlightenment, but idleness of the mind, more harmful than the idleness of bodily forces... This idleness of the mind and that " we all learned little by little - something and somehow", that is, without any system and a definite goal, they embarrassed him, because, without giving a solid foundation for everyday work, they formed the basis" yearning laziness"for which so often the only occupation in idleness" idle life, like the monotonous song of slaves", are cards - " monotonous family - all sons of idle boredom". Even more than the imperfection of laws or their alienation from life, they frightened him" condensed darkness of prejudice"and supporting her" ignorance is a fatal disgrace", not only putting a shameful shadow on the society that puts up with him, but often leading him to death. Hence Pushkin's surprise at Lomonosov, this" a single original associate of education between Peter and Catherine II"- hence his admiration for Peter," with an autocratic hand boldly sowing enlightenment"; - hence the picture of triumph that captivates him, when" resounded in honor of science songs choir and guns thunder!". Death stole Pushkin early. He shared the fate of Raphael and Byron, who also died at the age of 37. He only suffered more than them before he closed his eyes forever. those who understood what Russia had lost in Pushkin. Here is how the late Ivan Aleksandrovich Goncharov described to me in 1880, on one of the long evening walks along the seashore in Dubbeln, the impression made on him by Pushkin's death: " I saw Pushkin for the first time in Moscow, in the church of the Nikitsky Monastery. I had just begun to read it - and looked at it more with curiosity than with any other feeling. A few years later, while living in St. Petersburg, I met him at Smirdin's, a bookseller. He spoke to him seriously, without smiling, with a businesslike air. His face - dull, narrowed down, with fair-haired sideburns and abundant curls of hair - cut into my memory and later proved to me how correctly Kiprensky depicted him in a famous portrait. Pushkin was everything for the youth at that time. All her hopes, innermost feelings, most honest motives, all the harmonic strings of her soul, all the poetry of thoughts and sensations - everything came down to him, everything came from him ... I remember the news of his death. I was a small official, "translator" at the Ministry of Finance. There was not much work - and for myself, without any goals, I wrote, composed, translated, studied poets and aesthetics. I was especially interested in Winckelmann. But he dominated everything. In my modest small room, on the shelf, in the first place, were his works, where everything was studied, where every line was felt, thought out ... And suddenly they came and said that he was killed, that he was no more ... It was in the department. I went out of the office into the corridor - and bitterly, not controlling myself, turning to the wall and covering my face with my hands, wept. Anguish cut my heart with a knife - and tears flowed at a time when I still did not want to believe that he was no more, that Pushkin was no more! I could not understand that the one before whom I mentally bowed my knees lay lifeless ... And I wept bitterly and inconsolably, as one weeps upon receiving the news of the death of a beloved woman ... No, this is not true - about the death of a mother, - Yes, mothers. Three days later, a portrait of Pushkin appeared with the caption: "The fire on the altar went out ...", but the censorship and the police hastened to ban and destroy it ..."Pushkin died, but he did not die. It was possible to destroy his bodily shell, but the fruits of his spirit, his creative genius are not amenable to death. He himself knew this, saying in prophetic foresight:" Not! I won't die! The soul in the cherished lyre will survive my ashes and run away from decay"... The ringing of his spiritual strings stood over the Russian land continuously, either thickening or temporarily weakening, under the influence of the topic of the day. But the views of a one-sided assessment and youthful enthusiasm that tried to shake the tripod " little, sweet little Pushkin" , passed, " falling off scales", and the eightieth year united at the monument in Moscow, in one common feeling of grateful tenderness, enlightened Russian people of various directions. Then, it seemed, the untimely deceased poet forgave Russian society from the height of his pedestal for his voluntary and involuntary sins towards himself .. In oblivion of his last bodily torments, brightening and seeing spiritually, he said to Dahl: " Well, pick me up! Let's go, let's go higher! .. higher!"... And he goes higher and higher in Russian self-consciousness, lifting it after him, ennobling it. The thundering and pure spring of his poetry spilled over the Russian land into a deep and wide river. With his moral appearance, Pushkin tells us about eternal beauty, about love of truth, mercy for the fallen, compassion. He said: " There are people chosen by fate - sacred friends of people - their immortal family will someday illuminate us with irresistible rays."... But who, if not he, belongs to this family? His irresistible rays shine over us; he meets our youth on the school bench and in the silence of the family and teaches them, initiating the secrets of the Russian language, into its inexpressible charm; - he awakens in the tired heart of the old man eternal feelings and the memory of the best impulses of his once young soul! It was not for nothing that Tyutchev told him: " You, as the first love, Russia's heart will not forget!". And who cannot be forgotten, he does not die. And it seems that here, at the celebration of our spirit and our just pride, among the Academy of Sciences, he is also present, its main member, alive, mobile, with an expressive face, in thick curls hair, with the imprint of a bright thought on his forehead, - and that today his cheerful, childish laughter sounds especially joyful, without a hidden note of sorrow, and his beautiful blue eyes have no reason to darken with pain and anger ... So a distant star, having already ceased to exist , continues to pour its pure, its captivating rays onto the earth ...