"The Past" A. Pleshcheev

In October 1908, Alexander Blok wrote in his article “Evenings of Arts”: “The other day, a writer (not of my generation) told me about the previous literary evenings: they were very rare and always distinguished by special solemnity ... But why did they shake their hearts: with his dry and graceful declamation, Polonsky with a solemnly outstretched and romantically trembling hand in a dirty white glove, Pleshcheev in silver gray hair, calling "forward without fear and doubt"? Because, the writer told me, they seem to reminded about something, awakened some sleepy strings, aroused high and noble feelings. Is there anything like that now, can it be? "

The significance of a writer in the life of his time does not always correspond to the scale of his talent and the importance of his contribution to the development of Russian literature. Often in the history of poetry, we see how, even if incomplete, answers to burning questions give strength to the artist's voice. The life and character of the writer, his personal charm, his convictions and sincerity affect the readers to no less extent. Such was the poetic appearance of A. N. Pleshcheev.

The idea of \u200b\u200bthe significance of the civil principle in poetry in Blok awakened the memory of Pleshcheev. And indeed, the handsome figure of the revolutionary poet until the end of his days aroused warm sympathy in the younger generation. Pleshcheev's participation in the revolutionary movement determined in equal measure both the main motives and features of his works, and his personal fate. On the day of his 40th birthday, Pleshcheev received many congratulations, including letters from members of the revolutionary movement and revolutionary-minded youth. Thus, the student-artist enthusiastically noted as amazing for the years of reaction the "glorious obscure feat" of the poet's service under the "one and the same banner."

It is also characteristic that for the reactionary press and the tsarist government Pleshcheyev remained a living embodiment of the revolutionary sentiments of the Russian people until the end of his days. It was not for nothing that on the day of his death, newspapers were forbidden to print any "panegyric word to the late poet."

The poems of A. N. Pleshcheev are a poetic biography of the best people of the 40-60s of the last century, for whom revolutionary ideals remained unchanged. In this sense, the poetry of Petrashevtsy is inseparable from the history of Russian democratic poetry and the history of the liberation struggle of the second half of the 19th century. Pleshcheev appreciated and understood the significance of the new generations of Russian revolutionaries and during a very long life and creative path strove to answer the questions posed by the course of social development - that is why his influence on modernity was so great.

Alexey Nikolaevich Pleshcheev was born on November 22, 1825 in Kostroma. His father, Nikolai Sergeevich, a descendant of an old and well-known noble family in the history of Russia, served under the Olonets, Vologda and Arkhangelsk governors. The poet's childhood passed in Nizhny Novgorod, where his father was transferred. Having received an excellent education at home, in 1839, at the request of his mother, he was assigned to the school of guards ensigns in St. Petersburg. The future poet had a chance here to face the stupefying and corrupting atmosphere of the Nikolaev military clique, which forever settled in his soul "the most sincere antipathy" (letter to VD Dandeville dated May 24, 1855). After a year and a half, he left school. In 1843, the future poet entered the Oriental Faculty of St. Petersburg University, where he stayed until the summer of 1845. Simultaneously with him, N. Speshnev, A. Khanykov, D. Akhsharumov and others studied here. In this circle of comrades, most of whom would later enter the Petrashevsky society, Plescheev's literary and political interests were formed. It is significant that at about the same time, the poetic activity of many future members of the Petrashevsky circle began: Saltykov-Shchedrin, Palma, Durov, etc. It was at this “disadvantageous for poets” (according to Nekrasov) time that the first poems of A.N. Pleshcheeva. In the February issue of Sovremennik for 1844, he published the poem Night Thoughts. Pavel Pletnev, publisher of Sovremennik and rector of St. Petersburg University, wrote to Ya. K. Groth on March 16, 1844: “Have you seen poetry in Sovremennik signed by A. P-v? I found out that this was our 1st year student Pleshcheev. He shows talent. I called him to me and caressed him. He walks through the eastern department, lives with his mother, whose only son is, and went to the university from the school of guards ensigns, not feeling disposed towards military life. " Soon Plescheev's ideological divergence with Sovremennik was revealed, which Pletnev himself explained by the influence of Belinsky's ideas or, as he writes, "Kraevsky's doctrine." Belinsky played an important role in the formation of political and literary views of Pleshcheev as a student. In his articles, the poet recalled with ardent feeling the significance of Belinsky's articles in his time, “when the public was anticipating with some feverish impatience every book of the magazine where Belinsky wrote. The heart of the young generation beat faster in response to its powerful, passionate, energetic voice, which spoke of love for truth, science and humanity, mercilessly pursuing everything low, contrary to human dignity - in life, and everything false, pompous, rhetorical - in art. " And then he defined Belinsky's role in the fate of his generation in this way: “How many people owe him their development; how many he taught to consciously look at the reality around them, how many he helped to comprehend all the vulgarity and ugliness of some of its phenomena, in spite of upbringing, which taught him to bow slavishly before these phenomena ... "

Denial of the vulgarity and ugliness of the then society, democratic and socialist ideas - this is one of the results of the student period. It was not for nothing that in the summer of 1845 he left the university and, in a letter to PA Pletnev, explained his departure by dissatisfaction with the university course and the desire "to devote himself to living sciences ... close to life and, therefore, to the interests of our time ...". It is not by chance that he names history and political economy among these sciences. This change in the mood of Pleshcheev also led him to refuse to cooperate in the well-meaning (Don Dekrasovian) Sovremennik. In the same 1845, he tried to take his poems from Pletnev under a plausible pretext, explaining that they could not be printed without "significant corrections and changes."

Apparently, this explains his transition from 1845 to other publications - "Repertoire and Pantheon" and "Illustration". In any case, it is characteristic that in 1844 he published 13 poems in Sovremennik, in 1845 - two, and in 1846, only one appeared - "In Memory", with a date of 1844. From the beginning of 1845, Pleshcheev, in fact, stopped participating in Pletnev's journal. This also explains the fact that the poems published in Sovremennik in 1845-1846, he re-published in other organs, and some appear simultaneously in Sovremennik and Repertoire and Pantheon. The very nature of his poetic activity is also changing in many ways.

It is extremely significant that the departure from Sovremennik and the university coincides with the emergence of the secret society of Petrashevsky. The commonality of literary and philosophical-political interests brings Pleshcheev closer to N.V. Khanykov, P.V. Verevkin, I.M.Debu, M.V. Petrashevsky, the Maikov brothers, Milyutins and others. Of these, a secret society was formed in 1845 Petrashevsky. Pleshcheev was one of the most prominent participants in the “Fridays” (or, as the participants called them, “committees” or “gatherings”) of Petrashevsky. He has been a visitor to "Fridays" since their inception, that is, since the beginning of 1845. Together with Khanykov, Balasoglo, Durov, Vl. Milyutin, Saltykov, Speshnev, Engelson, Pleshcheev entered the main nucleus of this political society as early as 1845-1846. In addition, he was associated with other circles of the opposition-minded intelligentsia of St. Petersburg. Among his acquaintances were the Beketov brothers, in whose house there was also "an indignant noble impulse against oppression and injustice." Here he became friends with the early deceased critic Valerian Maikov and FM Dostoevsky. In the spring of 1846, Pleshcheev introduced F. Dostoevsky to Petrashevsky. In the fall of 1848, on the initiative of Pleshcheev and Dostoevsky, a special circle of S.F.Durov, A.I. Palma and Pleshcheev arose. The police report says: “Grigoriev responded that they<вечера у Дурова> had a political character ”. According to the testimony of A. N. Baranovsky, in the winter of 1846–1847, in the telling of various anti-government jokes, "it was mainly Petrashevsky and Pleshcheev who were distinguished."

"The Past" Alexey Pleshcheev

The nights are pale
A gentle light illuminated
My room.

I hear behind the wall again
Over the little sick
Baiushki bye.

Sing again! Listening to you
And my soul is sick
Take a break from the torment.

I remember a different time
The burden was lighter than life,
Life was more fun!

These years passed so fast
Years of happiness and freedom
Years of bright dreams!

How much is caused by a dream
Familiar faces before me
And familiar places.

I remember the forest ... whispering trees,
And the darkened waves of murmur,
And the twinkling of the stars.

The garden is neglected and gloomy,
Over the water of the pond transparent
Country house.

Speeches are gentle and affectionate,
In a cozy corner of a fairy tale
On a winter evening ...

The heart believed, loved,
Everything was so sweet to him
What's funny now!

But everything is quiet behind the wall ...
Over the little sick
The voice ceased long ago ...

Oh, why, bygone years,
Years of participation and freedom
I remembered you!

Longing is stronger in my soul
And until the morning, apparently, with her
I will not close my eyes!

Analysis of Pleshcheev's poem "The Past"

The name of Alexei Nikolaevich Pleshcheev (1825 - 1893) is known to most Russian readers from the socio-political works and translations of Western European authors. However, wonderful poems about childhood belong to the pen of this poet.

One of these kind light works is the "Past" of 1858. In its mood, it resembles IZ Surikov's Childhood and has a similar plot. The narration is in the first person. The poem tells how a lyrical hero, having heard a song performed by a small child, plunges into memories. With the help of picturesque metaphors and vivid epithets, the poet manages to recreate the enchanted world of his childhood so that the reader himself can feel his sadness over the past years.

The work has an unusual structure. It consists of fourteen three verses, combined in pairs by the last lines in the stanza, due to which the outline of the poem takes the form aab ccb, \u200b\u200bdde ffe, etc.

The Past begins with a story about the present. Here is a lyrical hero leads the reader to his humble abode:
The nights are pale
A gentle light illuminated
My room.

We understand that this derogatory attitude is associated with the misfortune, poverty of the hero. That is why he so clearly hears the sounds of the melody - the walls of the house are thin, and in the next, equally tiny, room there is a sick child to whom his mother is singing a song. From the text of the work, we can only guess that the voice belongs to a young woman, because the poet does not name anything directly, using the language of metaphors: "The voice is so clear and the ringing ..."

The poet also does not mention childhood, where the gentle melody takes the thoughts of the lyrical hero. Instead, he calls it "years of happiness and freedom", "years of bright dreams." We can understand that it is the early years that we are talking about from the image “in the corner of a cozy fairy tale”.

The poet talks about childhood experiences using personifications, because many children with a vivid imagination endow different objects and phenomena with a soul. Therefore, trees in memories can whisper, and a wave can murmur like a frowning person:
I remember the forest ... whispering trees,
And the darkened waves of murmur,
And the twinkling of the stars.

The poem ends where it began, forming a ring. The lyrical hero returns to today, annoyed that now he cannot sleep. But the reader doesn't feel hurt in the lines. Speaking about the song that gave him these disturbing memories, and about the child who unwittingly became their cause, the poet uses alliterations with soft sonorant consonants ("l", "r", m ":" baby "," silent "," stronger " , "I hear"). Thanks to this, the reader is also imbued with tenderness for the heroes of the work.

And he entered the St. Petersburg University in the category of oriental languages. Here Pleshcheev's circle of acquaintances began to take shape: the rector of the university P.A.Pletnev, A.A.Kraevsky, the Maikovs, F.M.Dostoevsky, I.A.Goncharov, D.V. Grigorovich, M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin.

Gradually, Pleshcheev acquired acquaintances in literary circles (formed, mainly, at parties in the house of A. Kraevsky). Pleshcheev sent his very first selection of poems to Pletnev, rector of St. Petersburg University and publisher of the Sovremennik magazine. In a letter to J.C. Groth, the latter wrote:

Have you seen in Contemporary poems with signature A. P-b? I learned that this was our 1st year student, Pleshcheev. He has talent. I called him to me and caressed him. He walks through the eastern branch, lives with his mother, whose only son ...: 9

In the summer of 1845, Pleshcheev left the university due to his financial constraints and dissatisfaction with the very process of education. After leaving the university, he devoted himself exclusively to literary activity, but did not leave hopes of completing his education, intending to prepare the entire university course and take it as an external student: 9. At the same time, he did not interrupt contacts with the members of the circle; Petrashevites often met at his home; Pleshcheev was perceived by them as "a poet-fighter, their own Andre Chenier."

In 1846 the first collection of the poet's poems was published, which included the popular poems "At the Call of Friends" (1845), as well as "Forward! without fear and doubt ... "(nicknamed" the Russian Marseillaise ") and" We feel like brothers "; both poems became hymns for the revolutionary youth. The slogans of the Pleshcheev hymn, which subsequently lost their sharpness, had a very specific content for the poet's peers and associates: the "teaching of love" was deciphered as the teaching of the French socialists-utopians; "Valiant feat" meant a call to public service, etc. N. G. Chernyshevsky later called the poem "a wonderful hymn", N. A. Dobrolyubov characterized it as "a bold call, full of such faith in himself, faith in people, faith to a better future ”. Pleshcheev's poems had a wide public response: they "began to perceive him as a poet-fighter."

Poems to the maiden and the moon are over forever. Another era is coming: doubt and endless torment of doubt, suffering with universal human issues, bitter lament for the shortcomings and calamities of mankind, for the disorder of society, complaints about the trifles of modern characters and the solemn recognition of their insignificance and powerlessness, imbued with lyrical pathos to the truth ... the situation in which our poetry has been since the death of Lermontov, Mr. Pleshcheev is undoubtedly our first poet at the present time ... He, as can be seen from his poems, took up the work of a poet by vocation, he strongly sympathizes with the issues of his time, suffers from all the ailments of the century painfully tormented by the imperfections of society ...

Pleshcheev's poetry turned out to be in fact the first literary reaction in Russia to events in France. In many ways, this is precisely why his work was so appreciated by the Petrashevists, who set as their immediate goal the transfer of revolutionary ideas to domestic soil. Subsequently, Pleshcheev himself wrote in a letter to A.P. Chekhov:

The poem "New Year" ("Clicks are heard - congratulations ..."), published with a "conspiratorial" subtitle "Cantata from Italian", was a direct response to the French Revolution. Written at the end of 1848, it could not deceive the vigilance of the censorship and was published only in 1861: 240.

In the second half of the 1840s, Pleshcheev began to publish as a prose writer: his stories “The Raccoon Fur Coat. The story is not without morality "(1847)," Cigarette. True incident "(1848)," Protection. Experienced history "(1848) were noticed by critics, who discovered in them the influence of NV Gogol and attributed them to the" natural school ". During these years, the poet wrote the stories "Prank" (1848) and "Friendship Councils" (1849); in the second of them, some motifs of the story "White Nights" by FM Dostoevsky, dedicated to Pleshcheev, were developed.

Link

In the winter of 1848-1849, Pleshcheev arranged meetings of the Petrashevites at his home. They were attended by F. M. Dostoevsky, M. M. Dostoevsky, S. F. Durov, A. I. Palm, N. A. Speshnev, A. P. Milyukov, N. A. Mombelli, N. Ya. Danilevsky (future conservative author of the work "Russia and Europe"), PI Lamansky. Pleshcheev belonged to the more moderate part of the Petrashevites. He was left indifferent by the speeches of other radical speakers who replaced the idea of \u200b\u200ba personal God with "truth in nature", rejected the institution of family and marriage and professed republicanism. He was alien to extremes and sought to harmonize his thoughts and feelings. The fervent passion for the new socialist beliefs was not accompanied by a decisive rejection of his old faith and only merged the religion of socialism and the Christian doctrine of truth and love for one's neighbor into a single whole. It is not for nothing that he took the words of Lamennais as his epigraph to the poem "Sleep": "The earth is sad and dried up, but it will turn green again. The breath of the wicked will not sweep over her forever like a scorching breath. " ...

In 1849, while in Moscow (house No. 44 on 3rd Meshchanskaya Street, now Shchepkina Street), Pleshcheev sent FM Dostoevsky a copy of Belinsky's letter to Gogol. The police intercepted the message. On April 8, on the denunciation of the provocateur P. D. Antonelli, the poet was arrested in Moscow, sent under guard to St. Petersburg and spent eight months in the Peter and Paul Fortress. 21 people (out of 23 convicted) were sentenced to death; among them was Pleshcheev.

"Rite of execution on the Semyonovsky parade ground." Drawing by B. Pokrovsky, 1849

On December 22, along with the rest of the convicted Petrashevists, A. Pleshcheev was brought to the Semyonovsky parade ground to a special scaffold of the civil execution. A dramatization followed, which was later described in detail by F. Dostoevsky in the novel The Idiot, after which the decree of Emperor Nicholas I was read, according to which the death penalty was replaced by various terms of exile to hard labor or to prison companies: 11. A. Pleshcheev was first sentenced to four years of hard labor, then transferred to a private in Uralsk in the Separate Orenburg Corps.

"Before leaving"
Pleshcheev's poem of 1853, published with the dedication “L. ZD ”, was addressed to Lyubov Zakharievna Dandeville, wife of Lieutenant Colonel Dandeville.
Spring again! Again a long way!
In my soul anxious doubt;
Involuntary fear squeezes my chest:
Will the dawn of liberation shine?
Does God tell me to rest from grief,
Or fatal, destructive lead
Will put an end to all aspirations?
The future does not give an answer ...
And I go, obedient to the will of rock
Where my star leads me.
To a desolate land, under the heavens of the East!
And I only pray that I will be remembered
Few of those whom I loved here ...
Oh, believe me, you are the first of them ...
The poet sent it to the addressee before leaving for the active army, to storm the Ak-Mosque fortress: 241.

In the winter of 1850, in Uralsk, Pleshcheev met Sigismund Serakovsky and his circle; they also met later, at Ak-Mosque, where both served. In the Serakovsky circle, Pleshcheev again found himself in an atmosphere of intense discussion of the same socio-political issues that worried him in St. Petersburg. “One exile supported the other. The highest happiness was being in the circle of your comrades. After the drill, there were often friendly interviews. Letters from the homeland, news brought by the newspapers, were the subject of endless discussion. None of them lost courage and hope for a return ... ”, - his participant Br. Zalessky. Serakovsky's biographer specified that the circle discussed "issues related to the liberation of the peasants and the allotment of land to them, as well as the abolition of corporal punishment in the army."

Renewal of literary activity

Already during the years of exile A. Pleshcheev again resumed his literary activity, although he was forced to write in fits and starts. Pleshcheev's poems began to be published in 1856 in the Russian Bulletin under the characteristic title: "Old Songs in a New Way". Pleshcheev in the 1840s was, according to Mikhailov, inclined towards romanticism; In the poems of the period of exile, romantic tendencies were preserved, but criticism noted that here the inner world of a person who "devoted himself to the struggle for national happiness" began to be explored deeper.

In 1857, several more of his poems were published in the Russian Bulletin. For researchers of the poet's work, it remained unclear which of them were really new, and which belonged to the years of exile. It was assumed that the translation of G. Heine "Life Path" (in Pleshcheev - "And laughter, and songs, and the sun shine! .."), published in 1858, is one of the latter. The same line of “loyalty to ideals” was continued by the poem “In the Steppe” (“But let my days pass without joy…”). An expression of the general sentiments of the Orenburg exiled revolutionaries was the poem "After reading the newspapers", the main idea of \u200b\u200bwhich - the condemnation of the Crimean War - was consonant with the sentiments of the Polish and Ukrainian exiles.

A. N. Pleshcheev, 1850s

In 1858, after almost a ten-year hiatus, the second collection of Pleshcheev's poems was published. The epigraph to him, the words of Heine: "I was not able to sing ...", indirectly indicated that in exile the poet was almost never engaged in creative activity. Poems dated 1849-1851 have not survived at all, and Pleshcheev himself admitted in 1853 that he had "lost the habit of writing" for a long time. The main theme of the collection of 1858 was "pain for an enslaved homeland and faith in the righteousness of one's cause", the spiritual enlightenment of a person who refuses a thoughtless and contemplative attitude to life. The collection opened with the poem "Dedication", in many ways echoed the poem "And laughter, and songs, and the sun shine! ..". Among those who sympathetically appreciated Pleshcheev's second collection was N. A. Dobrolyubov. He pointed to the socio-historical conditioning of dreary intonations by the circumstances of life, which "hideously break the noblest and strongest personalities ...". “In this respect, the talent of Mr. Pleshcheyev was filled with the same stamp of a bitter consciousness of his powerlessness before fate, the same color of 'painful melancholy and joyless thoughts' that followed the ardent, proud dreams of his youth,” wrote the critic.

At the end of the 1850s, A. Pleshcheev turned to prose, first to the genre of the story, then published several stories, in particular, "Inheritance" and "Father and Daughter" (both - 1857), partly autobiographical "Budnev" (1858) , "Pashintsev" and "Two Careers" (both - 1859). The main target of the prose writer Pleshcheev's satire was pseudo-liberal accusation and romantic epigonism, as well as the principles of "pure art" in literature (the story "Literary Evening"). Dobrolyubov wrote about the story "Pashintsev" (published in the "Russian Bulletin" 1859, No. 11 and 12): he is bound by his environment, as this world gravitates over him with its demands and relationships - in a word, you see in the hero a social being, and not a solitary one. "

"Moskovsky Vestnik"

In November 1859, Pleshcheev became a shareholder of the newspaper "Moskovsky Vestnik", in which I.S.Turgenev, A.N. Ostrovsky, M.E.Saltykov-Shchedrin, I.I. Lazhechnikov, L.N. Tolstoy and N. G. Chernyshevsky. Pleshcheev energetically invited Nekrasov and Dobrolyubov to participate and fought to shift the newspaper's political orientation sharply to the left. He defined the task of the publication as follows: “Any nepotism aside. We must beat the serf-owners under the guise of liberals. "

The publication in the Moskovsky Vestnik of TG Shevchenko's Dream translated by Pleshcheev (published under the title The Reaper), as well as the poet's autobiography, was regarded by many (in particular, Chernyshevsky and Dobrolyubov) as a bold political act. Under the leadership of Pleshcheev, Moskovsky Vestnik became a political newspaper that supported the position of Sovremennik. In its turn, “Sovremennik” in “Notes of a New Poet” (II Panaev) positively assessed the direction of Pleshcheev’s newspaper, directly recommending its readers to pay attention to the translations from Shevchenko.

1860s

Cooperation with Sovremennik continued until its closure in 1866. The poet more than once declared his unconditional sympathy for the program of the Nekrasov magazine, articles by Chernyshevsky and Dobrolyubov. “I have never worked so much and with such love as at the time when all my literary activity was devoted exclusively to the magazine headed by Nikolai Gavrilovich and whose ideals were and will always remain my ideals,” the poet later recalled.

Nekrasov, Turgenev, Tolstoy, A.F. Pisemsky, A.G. Rubinstein, P.I.Tchaikovsky, actors of the Maly Theater attended literary and musical evenings in Moscow in the house of Pleshcheev. Pleshcheev was a member and was elected as an elder of the "Artistic circle".

In 1861, Pleshcheev decided to create a new journal, Foreign Review, and offered Mikhail Mikhailov to participate in it. A year later, together with Saltykov, A. M. Unkovsky, A. F. Golovachev, A. I. Evropyus and B. I. Utin, he developed a draft of the journal Russkaya Pravda, but in May 1862 he was refused permission from the journal. At the same time, an unfulfilled plan to purchase the already published Vek newspaper arose.

Pleshcheev's position on the reforms of 1861 changed over time. At first, he received the news about them with hope (evidence of this is the poem "You poor labored, not knowing rest ..."). Already in 1860, the poet rethought his attitude to the liberation of the peasants - largely under the influence of Chernyshevsky and Dobrolyubov. In letters to EI Baranovsky, Pleshcheev noted: the "bureaucratic and plantation parties" are ready to give up the "poor peasant as a sacrifice to bureaucratic robbery", renouncing the previous hopes that the peasant "will free himself from the heavy landlord's paw."

Period of political activity

Pleshcheev's poetry in the early 1860s was marked by the predominance of socio-political, civic themes and motives. The poet tried to appeal to a wide democratic audience; propaganda notes appeared in his poetic works. He finally stopped working with the "Russian Messenger" and personal communication with MN Katkov, moreover, began to openly criticize the direction headed by the latter. "Damned questions of reality are the true content of poetry," the poet argued in one of his critical articles, calling for the politicization of the publications in which he participated.

Typical in this sense poems were "Prayer" (a kind of reaction to the arrest of M. L. Mikhailov), dedicated to Nekrasov's poem "New Year", in which (as in "Anger has boiled in my heart ...") liberals with their rhetoric were criticized. One of the central themes in Pleshcheev's poetry at the beginning of the 1860s was the theme of the citizen-soldier, revolutionary feat. The poet in Pleshcheev's poems is not the former "prophet" suffering from misunderstanding of the crowd, but a "warrior of the revolution." The poem "Honest people on a thorny road ...", dedicated to the trial of Chernyshevsky ("Let not weave victorious wreaths for you ...") had a direct political significance.

The poems “Towards Youth” and “False Teachers”, published in Sovremennik in 1862, were also political in nature and were associated with the events of the fall of 1861, when the arrests of students were met with complete indifference of the broad masses. From Pleshcheev's letter to A. N. Supenev, to whom the poem "Towards Youth" was sent to Nekrasov, it is clear that on February 25, 1862, Pleshcheev read "Towards Youth" at a literary evening in favor of twenty expelled students. The poet also took part in collecting money for the benefit of the injured students. In the poem "To Youth" Pleshcheev urged students "not to retreat in front of the crowd, to throw stones at the ready." The poem "To False Teachers" was a response to the lecture of BN Chicherin, read on October 28, 1861, and directed against the "anarchy of minds" and "wild rampant thoughts" of students. In November 1861, Pleshcheev wrote to A.P. Milyukov:

Have you read Chicherin's lecture in Moskovskiye Vedomosti? No matter how little you sympathize with the students, whose antics are really often childish, but you must admit that you cannot help feeling sorry for the poor youth, condemned to listen to such flabby nonsense, such worn-out as soldier's trousers, commonplaces and windbag doctrinaire phrases! Is this a living word of science and truth? And this lecture was applauded by the associates of the venerable doctrinaire Babst, Ketcher, Schepkin and Co.

In the reports of the secret police in these years, A. N. Pleshcheyev still figured as a "conspirator"; it was written that although Pleshcheev "behaves very secretly", he is still "suspected of spreading ideas that disagree with the types of government": 14. There were some grounds for such suspicion.

Honest people, thorny dear
Stepping towards the light with a firm foot,
By an iron will, by a clear conscience
You are terrible to human malice!
May not weave victorious wreaths for you
Grief crushed, sleeping people -
Your labors will not perish without a trace;
A good seed will give fruit ...
The poem, written in 1863 about the trial of Chernyshevsky, was not published until 1905. Chernyshevsky, with whom Pleshcheev was associated with a community of views and personal friendship, noted the latter as "a writer whose work is impeccable and useful."

By the time A. N. Pleshcheev moved to Moscow, N. G. Chernyshevsky's closest associates were already preparing the creation of an all-Russian secret revolutionary organization. Many friends of the poet took an active part in its preparation: S. I. Serakovsky, M. L. Mikhailov, J. Stanevich, N. A. Serno-Solovievich, N. V. Shelgunov. For this reason, the police considered Pleshcheev as a full member of the secret organization. In the denunciation of Vsevolod Kostomarov, the poet was called a "conspirator"; it was he who was credited with creating the "Letter to the Peasants", the famous proclamation of Chernyshevsky.

Literary activity in the 1860s

In 1860 two volumes of Pleshcheev's Tales and Stories were published; in 1861 and 1863 - two more collections of Pleshcheev's poems. The researchers noted that as a poet, Pleshcheev joined the Nekrasov school; against the background of the social upsurge of the 1860s, he created socially-critical, protest-invocatory poems ("O youth, youth, where are you?", "Oh, do not forget that you are in debt", "Boring picture!"). At the same time, by the nature of his poetry, he was close in the 1860s to NP Ogarev; the creativity of both poets developed on the basis of common literary traditions, although it was noted that Pleshcheev's poetry was more lyrical. Among his contemporaries, the prevailing opinion was that Pleshcheev remained a "man of the forties", somewhat romantic and abstract. “Such a mental disposition did not quite coincide with the character of the new people, the sober people of the sixties, who demanded deeds and, above all, deeds”: 13, noted N. Bannikov, the poet's biographer.

The researchers noted that in a new literary situation for Pleshcheev, it was difficult for him to develop his own position. "We need to say a new word, but where is it?" - he wrote to Dostoevsky in 1862. Pleshcheev sympathetically perceived various, sometimes polar socio-literary views: thus, while sharing some of the ideas of N. G. Chernyshevsky, at the same time he supported both the Moscow Slavophiles and the program of the Vremya magazine.

Literary earnings brought the poet a meager income, he led the existence of a "literary proletarian", as FM Dostoevsky called such people (including himself). But, as contemporaries noted, Pleshcheev behaved independently, remaining faithful to the "high humanistic Schiller idealism, assimilated in his youth": 101. As Yu. Zobnin wrote, “Pleshcheev, with the courageous simplicity of an exiled prince, endured the constant need of these years, huddled with his large family in tiny apartments, but did not give up his civil or literary conscience one iota”: 101.

Years of frustration

In 1864, A. Pleshcheev was forced to enter the service and got a job as an auditor of the control chamber of the Moscow post office. “I was completely pounded by life. In my years to fight like a fish on the ice and wear a uniform, for which I never prepared, how hard it is ": 14, - he complained two years later in a letter to Nekrasov.

There were other reasons for the sharp deterioration of the general mood of the poet, which was outlined by the end of the 1860s, and the predominance of feelings of bitterness and depression in his works. His hopes for popular action in response to reform suffered collapse; many of his friends died or were arrested (Dobrolyubov, Shevchenko, Chernyshevsky, Mikhailov, Serno-Solovievich, Shelgunov). The death of his wife on December 3, 1864 was a heavy blow for the poet. After the closure of the Sovremennik and Russkoe Slovo magazines in 1866 (the Dostoevsky brothers' magazines Vremya and Epoh were discontinued even earlier), Pleshcheev was among the group of writers who had practically lost the magazine platform. The main theme of his poems of this time was the exposure of betrayal and treason ("If you want it to be peaceful ...", "Apostaten-Marsch", "I feel sorry for those whose strength is dying ...").

In the 1870s, revolutionary sentiments in Pleshcheev's work acquired the character of reminiscences; characteristic in this sense, considered one of the most significant in his work, the poem "I walked quietly along a deserted street ..." (1877), dedicated to the memory of VG Belinsky. As if the poem "Without hopes and expectations ..." (1881), which was a direct response to the state of affairs in the country, would draw a line under a long period of disappointment and collapse of hopes.

Pleshcheev in St. Petersburg

In 1868, N. A. Nekrasov, becoming the head of the journal Otechestvennye zapiski, invited Pleshcheev to move to St. Petersburg and take the post of editorial secretary. Here the poet immediately found himself in a friendly atmosphere, among like-minded people. After the death of Nekrasov, Pleshcheev took over the leadership of the poetry department and worked in the magazine until 1884.

Creativity of the 1880s

With the resettlement to the capital, Pleshcheev's creative activity resumed and did not stop almost until his death. In the 1870s-1880s, the poet was mainly engaged in poetic translations from German, French, English and Slavic languages. As the researchers noted, it was here that his poetic mastery was manifested to the greatest extent.

D. S. Merezhkovsky - A. N. Pleshcheev

For a new generation of Russian writers of the late 19th century, A. N. Pleshcheev was "a living symbol of the chivalrous Russian literary free-thinking of immemorial pre-reform times": 101.

…You are dear to us, which is not just a word,
But with all your soul, with all your life, you are a poet,
And in these sixty hard, long years -
In deaf exile, in battle, in severe labor -
You were warmed everywhere with a pure flame.
But do you know, poet, to whom you are dearer than all,
Who will send you the most greetings?
You are the best friend for us, for Russian youth,
For those whom you called: "Forward, forward!"
With your captivating, deep kindness,
As a patriarch, you united us into a family, -
And that's why we love you with all our hearts,
And that's what we raised our glass for now!

A. Pleshcheev also translated fiction; some works ("The Belly of Paris" by E. Zola, "Red and Black" by Stendhal) were first published in his translation. The poet also translated scientific articles and monographs. In various journals, Pleshcheev published numerous compilation works on Western European history and sociology (Paul-Louis Courier, his life and works, 1860; The Life and Correspondence of Proudhon, 1873; The Life of Dickens, 1891), monographs about the work of W. Shakespeare, Stendhal, A. de Musset. In his journalistic and literary-critical articles, in many ways following Belinsky, he promoted democratic aesthetics, urged people to look for heroes in the popular environment capable of sacrificing themselves in the name of common happiness.

In 1887, a complete collection of poems by A. N. Plescheev was published. The second edition, with some additions, was made after his death by his son, in 1894; later, Pleshcheev's "Tales and Stories" were also published.

A. N. Pleshcheev was actively interested in theatrical life, was close to the theatrical environment, and was familiar with A. N. Ostrovsky. At various times, he held the positions of foreman of the Artistic Circle and chairman of the Society of Stage Figures, actively participated in the activities of the Society of Russian Drama Writers and Opera Composers, and often gave readings himself.

A. N. Pleshcheev wrote 13 original plays. Basically, these were small in volume and “entertaining” lyric-satirical comedies from the provincial landlord life. Theatrical performances based on his dramatic works "Service" and "There is a silver lining" (both - 1860), "Happy couple", "Commander" (both - 1862) "What often happens" and "Brothers" (both - 1864), and others) were performed in the leading theaters of the country. During these years, he reworked about thirty comedies by foreign playwrights for the Russian stage.

Children's literature

Children's poetry and literature occupied an important place in the work of Pleshcheev in the last decade of his life. His collections "Snowdrop" (1878) and "Grandfather's Songs" (1891) were successful. Some of the poems became textbooks ("The Old Man", "Grandmother and Granddaughter"). The poet took an active part in publishing, precisely in line with the development of children's literature. In 1861, together with FN Berg, he published a collection-reader "Children's Book", in 1873 (with N. A. Aleksandrov) - a collection of works for children's reading "For a holiday". Also, thanks to the efforts of Pleshcheev, seven school manuals were published under the general title "Geographical Sketches and Pictures."

Researchers of Pleshcheev's work noted that Pleshcheev's poems for children are characterized by a striving for vitality and simplicity; they are filled with free colloquial intonations and real imagery, while maintaining general moods of social discontent (“I grew up with my mother in the hall ...”, “Boring picture”, “Beggars”, “Children”, “Native”, “Old people”, “Spring "," Childhood "," Old Man "," Grandmother and Granddaughter ").

Romances to verses by Pleshcheev

A. N. Pleshcheev was characterized by specialists as a "poet with a smoothly flowing, romance" poetic speech and one of the most "melodious lyric poets of the second half of the 19th century." About a hundred romances and songs were written on his poems - both by his contemporaries and by composers of subsequent generations, including N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov ("The night flew over the world"), M. P. Mussorgsky, C. A. Cui , A. T. Grechaninov, S. V. Rachmaninov.

Pleshcheev's poems and children's songs became a source of inspiration for PI Tchaikovsky, who appreciated their "soulful lyricism and spontaneity, emotion and clarity of thought." Tchaikovsky's interest in Pleshcheev's poetry was largely due to the fact of their personal acquaintance. They met in the late 1860s in Moscow in the Artistic Circle and maintained good friendly relations for the rest of their lives.

Tchaikovsky, who turned to Pleshcheev's poetry at different periods of his creative life, wrote several romances to the poet's verses: in 1869 - "Not a word, my friend ...", in 1872 - "Oh, sing the same song ...", in 1884 - "You are the only one ...", in 1886 - "Oh, if you knew ..." and "For us the meek stars shone ...". Fourteen songs by Tchaikovsky from the cycle "Sixteen Songs for Children" (1883) were created on verses from Pleshcheev's collection "Snowdrop"

“This work is easy and very pleasant, because I took the text Snowdrop Pleshcheeva, where there are many lovely little things, ”the composer wrote while working on this cycle to MI Tchaikovsky. In the House-Museum of PI Tchaikovsky in Klin, in the composer's library there is a collection of Pleshcheev's poems “Snowdrop” with the poet's dedication: “To Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky as a sign of affection and gratitude for his wonderful music to my bad words. A. N. Pleshcheev. 1881 February 18th St. Petersburg ".

A. N. Pleshcheev and A. P. Chekhov

Photo presented by A.N.Pleshcheev to A.P. Chekhov in 1888.
I love receiving letters from you terribly. Do not be told as a compliment, there is always so much sharp wit in them, all your characteristics of people and things are so good that you read them as a talented literary work; and these qualities, combined with the thought that a good person remembers you and is disposed towards you, make your letters very valuable
From a letter by A.N. Plescheev to A.P. Chekhov on July 15, 1888.

Pleshcheev became an admirer of Chekhov even before he met him personally. Memoirist Baron N. V. Drizen wrote: “How now I see the fine, almost biblical figure of the elder - the poet A. N. Plescheev, talking with me about the book At duskjust released by Suvorin. “When I read this book,” said Pleshcheev, “Ivan Turgenev's shadow was invisibly hovering before me. The same pacifying poetry of the word, the same wonderful description of nature ... "He especially liked the story" Holy Night "."

Pleshcheev's first acquaintance with Chekhov took place in December 1887 in St. Petersburg, when the latter, together with I. L. Leontyev (Shcheglov), visited the poet's house. Shcheglov later recalled this first meeting: “… less than half an hour had passed since the dear Alexei Nikolaevich was at Chekhov's place in complete 'mental captivity' and was worried in turn, while Chekhov quickly entered his usual philosophical and humorous mood. If someone had dropped by by chance into Pleshcheev’s office, he probably would have thought that old close friends were talking… ”. A month later, an intense friendly correspondence began between new friends, which lasted five years. In letters to his other acquaintances, Chekhov often called Pleshcheyev “grandfather” and “padre”. At the same time, he himself was not an admirer of Pleshcheev's poetry and did not hide his irony in relation to those who idolized the poet.

Chekhov wrote the story "The Steppe" in January 1888 for the Severny Vestnik; at the same time, he shared in detail in letters his reflections and doubts (“I am shy and afraid that my Steppe will come out insignificant ... Frankly, I squeeze out of myself, strain and pout, but still, in general, it does not satisfy me, although in some places I come across poetry in it ”). Pleshcheev became the first reader of the story (in manuscript) and repeatedly expressed delight in letters (“You have written or almost wrote a great thing. Praise and honor to you! .. It hurts me that you have written so many lovely, truly artistic things - and are less famous, than writers unworthy to untie the belt at your feet ”).

Chekhov first of all sent to Pleshcheev stories, novellas and the play "Ivanov" (in the second edition); shared in correspondence the idea of \u200b\u200bthe novel, on which he worked in the late 1880s, he was given the first chapters to read. On March 7, 1889, Chekhov wrote to Pleshcheev: "I will dedicate my novel to you ... in my dreams and in my plans my best thing is dedicated to you." Pleshcheev, highly appreciating internal independence in Chekhov, was frank with him himself: he did not hide his sharply negative attitude towards Novoye Vremya and even to Suvorin himself, with whom Chekhov was close.

In 1888, Pleshcheyev visited Chekhov in Sumy, and the latter spoke about this visit in a letter to Suvorin:

is he<Плещеев> he is sluggish and senile lazy, but this does not prevent the fair sex from rolling him on boats, taking him to neighboring estates and singing romances to him. Here he portrays himself the same as in Petersburg, that is, an icon, which is prayed for being old and once hung next to miraculous icons. Personally, in addition to being a very good, warm and sincere person, I see in him a vessel full of traditions, interesting memories and good commonplaces.

Pleshcheev criticized Chekhov's "Namedays", in particular, its middle part, with which Chekhov agreed ("... I wrote it lazily and carelessly. Getting used to small stories consisting only of the beginning and end, I miss and start to chew when I feel that I am writing the middle "), then he sharply spoke about the story" Leshy "(which had been praised by Merezhkovsky and Urusov). On the contrary, the story "Boring Story" was awarded the highest praise.

The correspondence began to come to naught after Chekhov, having gone to Tyumen, did not respond to several letters from the poet, however, and after receiving the inheritance and then moving to Paris, Pleshcheev continued to describe in detail his life, illness and treatment. A total of 60 letters from Chekhov and 53 letters from Pleshcheev have survived. The first publication of the correspondence was prepared by the poet's son, writer and journalist Alexander Alekseevich Pleshcheev, and was published in 1904 by the Petersburg Diary of a Theater-Goer.

last years of life

For the last three years of his life, Pleshcheev was freed from worries about earnings. In 1890, he received a huge inheritance from a Penza relative of Alexei Pavlovich Pleshcheev and settled with his daughters in the luxurious apartments of the Paris hotel Mirabeau, where he invited all his literary friends and generously gave them large sums of money. According to the memoirs of Z. Gippius, the poet changed only outwardly (losing weight from the onset of the disease). The enormous wealth that suddenly fell on him "from heaven", he accepted "with noble indifference, remaining as simple and hospitable as the owner in a small cage on Preobrazhenskaya Square." “What is this wealth to me. That's just the joy that I was able to provide for the children, well, I sighed a little myself ... before dying ": 101, - this is how the poet conveyed his words. Pleshcheev himself took guests to the sights of Paris, ordered sumptuous dinners in restaurants and "most respectably asked" to accept from him an "advance" for travel - a thousand rubles: 101.

The poet contributed a significant amount to the Literary Fund, established the Belinsky and Chernyshevsky Foundations to encourage talented writers, began to support the families of G. Uspensky and S. Nadson, and undertook to finance the journal of N.K. Mikhailovsky and V.G. Korolenko "Russian Wealth".

K. D. Balmont. In memory of Pleshcheev.

His soul was pure as snow;
For him was a shrine man;
He was always a singer of goodness and light;
He was full of love for the humiliated.
Oh youth! Bow down, bless
The cooled ashes of a silent poet.

This poem sounded on the day of the funeral over the coffin of A. N. Pleshcheev. : 586

Pleshcheev wrote that he avoids the beau monde, mentioning among those with whom communication gives him pleasure, only Professor M. Kovalevsky, zoologist Korotnev, Vice-Consul Yurasov, the Merezhkovsky couple.

In 1893, already seriously ill, A.N. Pleshcheev once again went to Nice for treatment and on the way on September 26 (October 8) died of an apoplectic stroke: 15. His body was transported to Moscow and buried in the cemetery of the Novodevichy Convent.

The authorities banned the publication of any "panegyric word" about the poet's death, but a huge crowd gathered at the farewell ceremony on October 6. The funeral, as contemporaries testified, was attended mainly by young people, including many still unknown writers, in particular, K. Balmont, who made a farewell speech over the coffin: 18.

Reviews from critics and contemporaries

Researchers of the poet's work noted a huge resonance that had one of his first poems, "Forward", which laid the foundation for "the social, civic side of his poetry ...". It was noted, first of all, the strength of Pleshcheev's civic position, the complete correspondence of personal qualities to the ideals they proclaimed. Peter Weinberg, in particular, wrote:

Pleshcheev's poetry is in many ways an expression and reflection of his life. He belongs to the category of poets with a completely definite character, the essence of which is exhausted by some one motive, grouping around itself its modifications and ramifications, always preserving, however, the fundamental foundation inviolable. In Pleshcheyev's poetry, this motif is humanity in the broadest and noblest sense of the word. Applied mainly to the social phenomena surrounding the poet, this humanity naturally had to take on an elegiac character, but his sadness is always accompanied by an unshakable faith in the victory - sooner or later - of good over evil ...

At the same time, many critics reservedly evaluated the early works of A. Pleshcheev. It was noted that it was "tinged with the ideas of socialist utopianism"; traditional romantic motives of disappointment, loneliness, melancholy "were interpreted by him as a reaction to social ill-being", in the context of the theme of "holy suffering" of the lyric hero ("Dream", "Wanderer", "At the Call of Friends"). The humanistic pathos of Pleshcheev's lyrics was combined with a prophetic tone characteristic of the moods of utopians, nourished with the hope of “seeing the eternal ideal” (To the Poet, 1846). Belief in the possibility of a harmonious world order, expectation of imminent changes were expressed in the most famous poem by P., extremely popular among Petrashevists (as well as among the revolutionary-minded youth of the next generations, "Forward! Without fear and doubt ..." (1846).

N. A. Dobrolyubov about the poetry of A. N. Plescheev
Speaking about Pleshcheev's early poems, Dobrolyubov noted that “in them there was a lot of vague, weak, immature; but among the same poems was this bold appeal, full of such faith in oneself, faith in people, faith in a better future ":

Friends! Let's give each other hands
And together we will move forward
And let, under the banner of science,
Our union is getting stronger and growing ...
... Let us be a guiding star
Holy truth is burning.
And believe the noble voice
No wonder the world will sound.

“This pure confidence, so firmly expressed, this fraternal call for union - not in the name of riotous feasts and daring exploits, but precisely under the banner of science ... they denounced the author, if not a remarkable poetic talent, then at least an energetic decision to devote his literary activity to honest service to the public good, ”the critic admitted.

Writers and critics associated with the social democratic movement were often skeptical about the pessimistic moods that prevailed in the poet's poetry after his return from exile. However, the same Dobrolyubov, noting that in Pleshcheev's poems one can hear "some kind of internal heavy grief, a sad complaint of a defeated soldier, sadness about the unfulfilled hopes of his youth", nevertheless noticed that these moods had nothing to do with "the plaintive groans of the crying piet of the former time ". Noting that such a transition from the initial elevation of hopes to disappointment is generally characteristic of the best representatives of Russian poetry (Pushkin, Koltsov, etc.), the critic wrote that “... the poet's sadness about the failure to fulfill his hopes is not devoid of ... social significance and gives the poems of Mr. Pleshcheev the right to be mentioned in the future history of Russian literature, even completely regardless of the degree of talent with which this sadness and these hopes are expressed in them. "

Critics and writers of later generations evaluated the poet's minor intonations somewhat differently, finding them in tune with the time in which he lived. “He kept the torch of thought on a rainy day. Sobs sounded in his soul. In his stanzas there was the sound of native sorrow, the dull groan of distant villages, a call for freedom, a gentle sigh of greetings and the first ray of the coming dawn ": 330, - K. Balmont wrote in his posthumous dedication.

A. N. Pleshcheev was not an innovator of the form: his poetic system, which was formed in line with the Pushkin and Lermontov traditions, was based on stable phrases, established rhythmic-syntactic schemes, a well-developed system of images. Some critics saw this as evidence of genuine taste and talent, while others gave reason to call some of his poems "colorless", accuse him of "lack of independence" and "monotony." At the same time, contemporaries, for the most part, highly appreciated the "social significance" of Pleshcheev's poetry, its "noble and pure direction", deep sincerity, a call to "honest service to society."

Pleshcheev was often accused of being carried away with abstract concepts and bombastic metaphors (“To all the enemies of black untruths, rising against evil,” “The sword of the peoples is stained,” “But high aspirations were brought to the sacrifice of human vulgarity ...”). At the same time, the poet's supporters noted that didactism of this kind was a form of Aesop's speech, an attempt to bypass censorship. M. Mikhailov, who at one time criticized Pleshcheev, wrote already in 1861 that "... Pleshcheev had only one power left - the power of calling for honest service to society and neighbors."

Over the years, critics have paid more and more attention to the individual, "special purity and transparency of Pleshcheev's poetic language", sincerity and sincerity; the softening of the tones of his poetic palette, the emotional depth of outwardly extremely simple, artless lines: 16.

Among literary historians of the 20th century, a negative assessment of Pleshcheev's work belongs to DP Svyatopolk-Mirsky; he wrote in the preface to the poetic anthology that Pleshcheev “introduces us into the true Sahara of poetic mediocrity and lack of culture”, and in his “History of Russian Literature” notes: “Civic poetry in the hands of its most significant representatives has become truly realistic, but ordinary citizenship bards are often were just as eclectic as the poets of "pure art", and in obedience to conventions they were still surpassed. Such is, for example, the flat and boring poetry of the very sweet and respectable A. N. Pleshcheev. "

Influences

Most often, critics attributed Pleshcheev's poetry to the Nekrasov school. Indeed, already in the 1850s, the poet began to appear poems, as if reproducing the satirical and social lines of Nekrasov's poetry ("Children of the century are all sick ...", 1858, etc.). The first all-encompassing satirical image of a liberal appeared in Pleshcheev's poem "My acquaintance" (1858); critics immediately noted that many of the attributes of imagery were borrowed from Nekrasov (a father who went bankrupt “on dancers,” the provincial career of a hero, etc.). The same denunciatory line continued in the poem "The Lucky Man" ("Slander! I and a member of God-pleasing different societies. Philanthropists take five rubles every year from me.") "(1862).

The poet wrote a lot about the life of the people ("Boring picture", "Native", "Beggars"), about the life of the urban lower classes - "On the street". Impressed by the plight of N. G. Chernyshevsky, who had already been in Siberian exile for five years, the poem "I feel sorry for those whose strength is dying" (1868) was written. Nekrasov's influence was noticeable in everyday sketches and in Pleshcheev's folklore and poetic imitations (“I grew up with my mother in the hall ...”, 1860s), in poetry for children. For Nekrasov, Pleshcheev forever retained feelings of personal affection and gratitude. “I love Nekrasov. There are sides in him that involuntarily attract him, and for them you forgive him a lot. In these three or four years that I have been here<в Петербурге>, I had a chance to spend two or three evenings with him - the kind that leave a mark on my soul for a long time. Finally, I will say that I personally owe him a lot ... ”, - he wrote to Zhemchuzhnikov in 1875. Some contemporaries, in particular M. L. Mikhailov, drew attention to the fact that Pleshcheev failed to create convincing pictures of the life of the people; the craving for the Nekrasov school was, for him, rather an unrealized tendency.

Lermontov motives

V.N. Maikov was one of the first who ranked Pleshcheev among Lermontov's followers. Subsequently, modern researchers also wrote about this: V. Zhdanov noted that Pleshcheev, in a sense, “took over the baton” from Lermontov, one of the last poems of which told about the fate of the Pushkin prophet, who set out to bypass “seas and lands” (“I began to proclaim love / And pure teachings of truth: / At me all my neighbors / They threw stones madly ... "). One of the first published poems of Pleshcheev was "Duma", denouncing the public's indifference "to good and evil", consonant with Lermontov's theme ("Alas, he is rejected! The crowd in his words / Teachings of love and truth does not find ...").

The theme of the poet-prophet, borrowed from Lermontov, became the leitmotif of Plescheev's lyrics, expressing "a view of the role of the poet as a leader and teacher, and of art as a means of rebuilding society." The poem "Dream", which repeated the plot of Pushkin's "Prophet" (a dream in the desert, the appearance of a goddess, transformation into a prophet), according to V. Zhdanov, "allows us to say that Pleshcheev not only repeated the motives of his brilliant predecessors, but tried to give his own interpretation Topics. He strove to continue Lermontov, as Lermontov continued Pushkin. " Pleshcheev's prophet, who awaits "stones, chains, prison", inspired by the idea of \u200b\u200btruth, goes to people ("My fallen spirit has risen ... and the oppressed again / I went to proclaim freedom and love ..."). From the Pushkin and Lermontov sources comes the theme of personal, family happiness, unfolded in the poetry of the Petrashevites, and in the work of Pleshcheyev received a new interpretation: as the theme of the tragedy of a marriage that breaks love ("Bay"), as a preaching of "reasonable" love based on similar views and beliefs ("We are close to each other ... I know, but alien in spirit ...").

Like-minded people and followers

Critics noted that in the nature and nature of his poetic activity, Pleshcheev in the 1860s was closest to N.P. Ogarev. He himself insisted on this creative "relationship". On January 20, 1883, the poet wrote to S. Ya. Nadson that P. I. Weinberg, in his report on him, “approached the topic perfectly, combining me in his characterization with Ogarev”. The landscape and landscape-philosophical lyrics of Pleshcheev were considered by critics as "interesting", but rational and in many ways secondary, in particular, in relation to the work of A. A. Fet.

Researchers of the 20th century have already noted that the idea of \u200b\u200bPleshcheev, implanted by the liberal press, as a “poet of the 40s” who outlived his time, or a Nekrasovian epigone, was largely motivated by political intrigues and a desire to belittle the authority of a potentially dangerous, oppositional author. Biographer N. Bannikov noted that Pleshcheev's poetic work was developing; in his later poems there was less romantic pathos, more - on the one hand, contemplation and philosophical reflections, on the other - satirical motives ("My friend", "Happy"): 15. Such protest works of the poet as "Honest people, thorny dear ...", "I feel sorry for those whose strength is dying" had a completely independent value; poems that ridiculed the "superfluous people" who had degraded in their passive "opposition" (the poetic novel "She and He", the poem "Children of the Century are all sick ...", 1858).

"Dedication"
Sounds of familiar songs will come to you,
Friends of my dead young years?
And will I hear your brotherly greetings?
Are you all the same as you were before parting? ...
Perhaps I will not count others!
And those - in a strange, distant side -
They forgot about me for a long time ...
And there is no one to respond to the songs!
The poem, dated 1858 and addressed to fellow Petrashevists, found a warm response among the latter, as evidenced by N. S. Kashkin. The latter responded with his own verse: 241:
Go ahead, do not be discouraged!
Goodness and truth on the road
Call your friends aloud.
Forward without fear and doubt
And if the blood has cooled in someone,
Your living chants
He will be awakened to life again.

Critics noted that Pleshcheev's poetry was clearer and more specific than the civil lyrics of the 60-70s of Ya. P. Polonsky and AM Zhemchuzhnikov, although some lines of creativity of the three poets intersected. The lyrics of Polonsky (as noted by M. Polyakov) were alien to the pathos of revolutionary duty; unlike Pleshcheev, who blessed the revolutionary, he lived with the dream of “overpowering time - going into prophetic dreams” (“Muse”). Closer to the poetic system of Pleshcheev, the lyrics of "civil motives" AM Zhemchuzhnikov. But their commonality was expressed rather in what constituted (in the opinion of the revolutionary democrats) the weak side of Pleshcheev's poetry. The resemblance to Zhemchuzhnikov was due to the ideological "vagueness" and sentimental didacticism of some of Pleshcheev's poems, mainly from 1858-1859. The motives of civil repentance, the allegorical perception of nature, brought both of them together. Zhemchuzhnikov's clearly liberal position (in particular, the latter's recognition of the ideals of "pure poetry") was alien to Pleshcheev.

The most obvious and brilliant follower of Pleshcheev was S. Ya. Nadson, who in the same tones protested against the “kingdom of Baal”, praised the shedding of “the righteous blood of the fallen fighters,” using a similar didactic style, symbols and signs. The main difference was that the feelings of despair and doom in Nadson's poetry took on an almost grotesque form. It was noted that Pleshcheev's poetry had a noticeable influence on N. Dobrolyubov's poems of 1856-1861 (“When a bright ray of knowledge penetrated the darkness of ignorance ...”), on the works of P.F. Yakubovich, early N.M. Minsky, I. Z. Surikov, V. G. Bogoraz. A direct retelling of Pleshcheev was the poem by G. A. Machtet, "Forgive the last!", F. V. Volkhovsky ("Friends"), S. S. Sinegub ("To the bust of Belinsky"), P. L. Lavrov were quoted from Plescheev's lines. his poem "Forward!" used part of Pleshcheev's program poem: 239.

In the 1870s, Pleshcheev's landscape poetry developed; the poems were filled with "sparkling tints of colors", accurate descriptions of the elusive movements of nature ("Ice shackles do not weigh on the sparkling waves", "I see the vault of heavens transparent blue, huge mountains jagged peaks"), which was interpreted by experts as the influence of A. A. Fet ... Pleshcheev's landscape lyrics, however, in one way or another served as a symbolic interpretation of the motives of public life and ideological quests. The “Summer Songs” cycle, for example, was based on the idea that the harmony of nature opposes the world of social contradictions and injustice (“A Boring Picture”, “Motherland”). Unlike Fet and Polonsky, Pleshcheev did not experience a conflict in the separation of two themes: landscape and civil.

Criticism from the left

Pleshcheev was criticized not only by liberals, but also - especially in the 1860s - by radical writers, whose ideals the poet tried to match. Among the poems that gave out, in the opinion of critics, sympathy for liberal ideas, it was noted "You poor labored, not knowing rest ..." (from which it followed that the peasants, "obedient to fate", patiently carried "their cross, as a righteous man carries", but came "Time for the holy revival", etc.). This liberal "prayer" evoked a sharp response from Dobrolyubov, who, on the whole, was always sympathetic to the poet. He parodied (in the poem "From the Motives of Modern Russian Poetry") the liberal "praise" by Pleshcheyev of the "Tsar-Liberator", which seemed to him to be liberal. However, the parody was not published for ethical reasons. Dobrolyubov criticized Pleshcheev for his "abstract didacticism" and allegorical images (entry in the critic's diary dated February 8, 1858).

Radical authors and publicists criticized Pleshcheev for what they considered to be excessive "broad-mindedness." Often he supported conflicting ideas and trends, sympathizing only with their "opposition"; the breadth of views "often turned into an uncertainty of judgment."

N. A. Dobrolyubov about Pleshcheev's prose

Pleshcheev the prose writer was considered a typical representative of the "natural school"; he wrote about provincial life, denouncing bribe-takers, serf-owners and the pernicious power of money (story "Raccoon fur coat", 1847; "Cigarette", "Protection", 1848; stories "Prank" and "Friendship Councils", 1849). Critics noticed the influence of N.V. Gogol and N.A.Nekrasov in his prose works.

N. A. Dobrolyubov, reviewing in 1860 a two-volume edition, which included 8 stories by A. N. Plescheev, noticed that they “... were published in all our best journals and were read in their time. Then they forgot about them. The talk and controversy of his story never aroused either in the public or in literary criticism: no one praised them especially, but no one scolded them either. For the most part, they read the story and were satisfied; that was the end of the matter ... ”. Comparing Pleshcheev's stories and stories with the works of second-class writers of his contemporaries, the critic noted that "... the social element permeates them constantly and this distinguishes them from many colorless stories of the thirties and fifties."

The world of Pleshcheev's prose is the world of "petty officials, teachers, artists, small landowners, semi-secular ladies and young ladies." In the history of each hero of Pleshcheev's stories, however, a connection with the environment is noticeable, which "gravitates over him with its demands." This, according to Dobrolyubov, is the main merit of Pleshcheev's stories, however, it is not a unique merit, belonging to him "on a par with very many of the modern fiction writers." The dominant motive of Pleshcheev's prose, according to the critic, can be reduced to the phrase: "the environment seizes a person." But -

When reading ... the stories of Mr. Pleshcheyev, a fresh and sane reader immediately has a question: what exactly do these well-meaning heroes want, why are they being killed? .. Here we do not encounter anything definite: everything is so vague, fragmentary, petty, that it is not you will deduce a common thought, you will not form an idea about the purpose of life of these gentlemen ... All that is good in them is the desire for someone to come, pull them out of the swamp in which they get stuck, put them on their shoulders and drag them to the place clean and light.

Describing the main character of the story of the same name, Dobrolyubov notes: “This Pashintsev is neither this nor that, neither day, nor night, nor darkness, nor light”, like many other heroes of stories of this kind, “does not represent a phenomenon at all; the whole environment that seizes him consists of exactly the same people. " The reason for the death of Gorodkov, the hero of the story "Benevolence" (1859), according to the critic, is "... His own naivety." Ignorance of life, uncertainty in the means and ends and poverty of means also distinguish Kostin, the hero of the story "Two Careers" (1859), who dies in consumption ("Immaculate heroes in Mr. Pleshcheev, like those of Mr. Turgenev and others, die of debilitating diseases ", - the author of the article ironically)," having done nothing anywhere; but we do not know what he could do in the world, even if he had not undergone consumption and was not continuously seized by the environment. " Dobrolyubov notes, however, the fact that the shortcomings of the poet's prose also have a subjective side: “If Mr. Pleshcheev, with exaggerated sympathy, draws us his Kostins and Gorodkovs, it is<следствие того, что> other, more sustained in practice types, in the same direction, have not yet been represented by Russian society. "

The value of creativity

It is believed that the significance of A. N. Pleshcheev's work for Russian and East European social thought significantly exceeded the scope of his literary and poetic talent. Since 1846, the works of the poet were regarded by critics almost exclusively in terms of socio-political significance. The collection of poems by A. N. Pleshcheev in 1846 became, in fact, a poetic manifesto of the Petrashevsky circle. In his article, Valerian Maikov, explaining what Pleshcheev's poetry was for people of the 40s, inspired by socialist ideals, put the latter at the center of modern poetry and was even ready to consider him the direct successor of M. Yu. Lermontov. “In the miserable state of our poetry since the death of Lermontov, Mr. Pleshcheev is undoubtedly our first poet at the present time ...”, he wrote.

Subsequently, it was precisely the revolutionary pathos of Pleshcheev's early poetry that determined the extent of his authority in revolutionary circles in Russia. It is known that in 1897 one of the first Social Democratic organizations, the South Russian Workers' Union, used the poet's most famous poem in its leaflet.

"Song of the workers"
In the leaflet interpretation of the South Russian Workers' Union, the Pleshcheev hymn looked like this:
Forward without fear and doubt
For a valiant feat, friends
Long been longing for unity
Working family friendly!
We will shake hands,
Let's unite in a close circle, -
And let it be torture and torment
A faithful friend will follow a friend!
We want brotherhood and freedom!
Let the vile age of slavery perish!
Really with mother nature
Is not everyone equal?
An eternal covenant was given to us by Marx -
Obey this covenant:
“Closer, workers of all countries,
Unite in one Union! "

Meanwhile, in general, the significance of A. N. Pleshcheev's work was not limited to his contribution to the development of Russian revolutionary poetry. Critics noted that the poet had done a tremendous amount of work (mainly on the pages of Otechestvennye zapiski and Birzhevye Vedomosti), analyzing the development of European literature, accompanying publications with his own translations (Zola, Stendhal, the Goncourt brothers, Alphonse Daudet). Pleshcheev's poems for children ("On the Shore", "Old Man") are recognized as classical. Along with Pushkin and Nekrasov, he is considered one of the founders of Russian poetry for children: 16.

Pleshcheev's translations

Pleshcheev's influence on poetry in the second half of the 19th century was largely due to his translations, which, in addition to artistic and socio-political significance: partly through poetry (Heine, Beranger, Barbier, etc.), revolutionary and socialist ideas penetrated into Russia. More than two hundred translated poems make up almost half of the entire poetic heritage of Pleshcheev. Modern criticism saw him as one of the greatest masters of poetic translation. “In our extreme conviction, Pleshcheev is even more a poet in translations than in the originals,” wrote the Vremya magazine, noting also that “in foreign authors he primarily seeks his thoughts and takes his good, wherever it may be ... ". Most of Pleshcheev's translations were from German and French. Many of his translations, despite specific liberties, are still considered textbooks (from Goethe, Heine, Rückert, Freiligrat).

Pleshcheev did not hide the fact that he did not see any special differences in the method of work on the translation and his own, original poem. He admitted that he was using translation as a means of propaganda of the most important ideas for this period, and in a letter to Markovich dated December 10, 1870, he directly pointed out: “I prefer to translate those poets for whom the common human element prevails over the popular one, for whom culture affects ! " The poet was able to find "democratic motives" even among poets of clearly expressed conservative views (Southey - early poems "Blenheim battle" and "Complaints of the poor"). Translating Tennyson, he especially emphasized the English poet's sympathy for the "fighter for an honest cause" ("Funeral Song"), for the people ("Queen of May").

At the same time, Pleshcheev often interpreted translation possibilities as a field of improvisation, in which he often departed from the original source. The poet freely altered, reduced or enlarged the translated work: for example, the poem by Robert Prutz “Did you look at the Alps at sunset…” from a sonnet turned into a triple quatrain; Syrokomli's large poem "Plowman to the Lark" ("Oracz do skowronku", 1851), which consisted of two parts, under the arbitrary title "Birdie" retold in an abbreviation (in the original 24 lines, in translation - 18). The poet considered the genre of poetic translation as a means of promoting new ideas. He freely interpreted, in particular, the poetry of Heine, often introducing his own (or Nekrasov's) ideas and motives there (translation of "Countess Godel von Gudelsfeld"). It is known that in 1849, when he visited Moscow University, the poet told his students that “... it is necessary to awaken self-awareness among the people, and the best means for this would be to translate foreign works into Russian, adapting to the common people’s way of speech, to distribute them in manuscripts … ”, And that a society has already emerged in St. Petersburg for this purpose: 238.

Character and personal qualities

All those who left memories of Pleshcheev characterized him as a man of high moral qualities. Peter Weinberg wrote about him as a poet who “... amid the harsh and frequent impulses of reality, even exhausted under them, ... nevertheless continued to remain the purest idealist and called others to the same ideal service to humanity,” never betrayed himself, “ nowhere and never (as it was said in the poetic address on the occasion of his 40th birthday) without sacrificing good feelings before the light.

From the posthumous dedication of K. D. Balmont:

He was the kind that fate led
By the flint ways of testing.
Whom the danger was guarded everywhere,
Mockingly threatening with anguish of exile.
But the blizzard of life, poverty, cold, haze
Burning desire has not been killed in him -
Be proud, brave, fight against evil
To awaken the holy hopes in others ...

“A man of the forties in the best sense of this concept, an incorrigible idealist,<Плещеев> he put his living soul, his meek heart into his songs, and that is why they are so beautiful ”: 16, - wrote the publisher P. V. Bykov. A. Blok, reflecting in 1908 about old Russian poetry, especially noted Pleshcheev's poems, which “awakened some sleeping strings, aroused high and noble feelings”: 16.

Contemporaries and later researchers of creativity noted the extraordinary clarity of mind, integrity of nature, kindness and nobility of Pleshcheev; characterized him as a person who "was distinguished by the unclouded purity of the soul"; retained "despite all the dashing convicts and soldiers' decades ... children's faith in the purity and nobility of human nature, and was always inclined to exaggerate the talent of the next debutant poet."

Z. Gippius, whom Pleshcheev "completely charmed" at the first personal meeting, wrote down her first impressions of him:

He is a big, somewhat overweight old man, with smooth, rather thick hair, yellow-white (gray blond), and a magnificent, completely white beard that gently spreads over his waistcoat. Correct, slightly diffuse features, a thoroughbred nose and seemingly harsh eyebrows ... but in the bluish eyes there is such a Russian softness, special, Russian, to the point of scattering, kindness and childishness that the eyebrows seem harsh - on purpose: 102.

Pleshcheev's grave in the Novodevichy Convent

Addresses

Artworks

Poems

During his lifetime, five collections of poems by A. N. Pleshcheev were published, the last of them in 1887. The most significant posthumous edition is considered to be published under the editorship of P. V. Bykov: “Poems by A. N. Plescheev (1844-1891). Fourth, revised edition ”. St. Petersburg, 1905. Pleshcheev's poetic works in Soviet times were published in the Big and Small series of the "Poet's Library": 237.

1840s Desdemona "While the noise of applause ..." Unaccountable sadness "I love to strive, I dream ..." Grave For memory "After the thunder, after the storm ..." Farewell song Shuttle Old man at the piano “Let's go ashore; there are waves ... " "Goodnight!" - you said…" "When I'm in a crowded hall ..." Singer's love At the call of friends "Again I, full of thoughts ..." Neighbor Wanderer "I hear familiar sounds ..." "Forward! without fear and doubt ... " A meeting Sounds "Why dream of what will happen after ..." To the tune of a French poet Chant "By the feelings of brothers, you and I ..." The poet sorry "By chance we got in touch with you ..." "He suffered a lot in life, a lot ..." "Like a Spanish fly, melancholy ..." New Year "Another great voice fell silent ..." 1850s Spring Before leaving When sending Raphael Madonna After reading newspapers "A wide new path lies before you ..." In the steppe Diary leaf "Do not say that in vain ..." "Oh, if you knew, friends of my spring ..." Meditation "There are days: no malice, no love ..." Winter skiing "When your gentle, clear gaze ..." Prayer S. F. Durov "Only my days are clear to you ..." "You are sweet to me, it's time for the sunset! ..." "It was time: my sons ..." The past "Children of the century are all sick ..." "Familiar sounds, wonderful sounds! ..." "When I returned to my native city ..." "When I meet, tormented by the struggle ..." "A lot of evil and stupid jokes ..." My acquaintance My kindergarten "Oh no, not everyone is given ..." "He walked resignedly along the thorny road ..." Song

Dedication Little bird Heart Wanderer Lucky "You poor labored, not knowing rest ..." "Do you remember: willow willows ..." "You want songs, - I don't sing ..." Flower "What a baby head ..." 1860s On a moonlit night Deserted house Ghosts "I drink to a glorious artist ..." Decembrist "If at the hour when the stars are lit ..." On the street "There is no rest, my friend, on the path of life ..." "Boring picture! ..." "I grew up with my mother in the hall ..." "Blessed is he who did not know labor ..." Sick Spring "Friends of Free Art ..." "I envy to look at the wise men ..." Supplication "No! better death without return ... " Beggars New Year "Oh, do not forget that you are a debtor ..." "Oh, youth, youth, where are you ..." ("Contemporary", 1862, April) The clouds In memory of K. S. Aksakov "Before the dilapidated hut ..." The poet "A pale ray of the moon broke through ..." In the woods. From Heine (Contemporary, 1863, January-February) "Everything, all my path ..." ("Contemporary", 1863, January-February) Two roads "The smell of rose and jasmine ..." "And here's your blue tent ..." To youth To false teachers "I love the forest path in the evening ..." "Anger boiled at my heart ..." "The night flew over the world ..." At night She and he "I'll rest, I'll sit by the forest edge ..." Homeland “Mother Nature! I'm coming to you ... " Native Advice of the Wise Men ("Contemporary", 1863, January-February) "The sun of the mountain was golden ..." "In court, he listened to the verdict ..." Spring "Why at the sound of these songs ..." Hypochondria Fall Dying "Honest people, dear thorny ..." "What a year, then a new loss ..."

"Why are you drooping, green willow? ..." Guests "If you want it to be peaceful ..." "I look at her and admire ..." Apostaten-Marsch In memory of E. A. Pleshcheeva "The snows are melting quickly, the streams are running ..." "When I see an unexpected burial ..." Slavic guests "Where are you, it's time for fun meetings ..." "I feel sorry for those whose strength is dying ..." "When you harsh silence ..." The clouds Words for music Old men "Heavy, painful thought ..." 1870s "Or those days are still far away ..." Expectation "Blessed are you to whom it has been given ..." Spring night "He is in his white coffin ..." Toast Into the storm Spring Childhood Winter evening From life The grave of the worker "There is no peace for me from fierce grief ..." "Warm spring day ..." On the shore At night Memory Tomorrow In the country Bad weather Old man "I walked quietly along the deserted street ..." Grandmother and granddaughter "I parted with deceptive dreams ..." "I owe you my salvation ..." 1880s "The lights went out in the house ..." In memory of Pushkin Exiled Song "Without hopes and expectations ..." "A muddy river gurgled ..." Of old songs "You thirsted for the truth, thirsted for the light ..." The past In memory of N.A.Nekrasov September 27, 1883 (In memory of I. S. Turgenev) ("Notes of the Fatherland", 1883, October) The last middle January 1, 1884 To the portrait of the singer "How often is the image dear ..." On the Sunset Words for music To the album to Anton Rubinstein Anton Pavlovich Chekhov At the funeral of Vsevolod Garshin "It's so hard, so bitter and painful for me ..." "As in days of bad weather the sun ray ..." "Who are you, beauty, with wild flowers ..." Reproach "This is a fiery sun ..."

Tale (favorites)

Plays (favorites)

Bibliography

• Arseniev K.K. One of the poets of the forties. Poems by A. N. Plescheev. // Bulletin of Europe, 1887, March, pp. 432-437.
• P. N. Krasnov Poetry of Pleshcheev. // Books of the Week, 1893, December, pp. 206-216.
, 1988 .-- 192 p. - (Literary criticism and linguistics). - 44,000 copies (region)
• Pustilnik L. S. Life and work of A. N. Plescheev / Otv. ed. I. L. Volgin. - M .: Nauka, 2008 .-- 344, p. - (Popular science literature). - ISBN 978-5-02-034492-1 (in lane)
• A.N. Pleshcheev and Russian literature: collection of scientific articles. - Kostroma: KSU im. ON. Nekrasov, 2006

Pleshcheev Alexey Nikolaevich was born in the family of a provincial official - a poet.

His family belonged to an old noble family. In 1827, the father of Alexei Nikolaevich was transferred to the service in Nizhny Novgorod, where he spent his childhood and the future poet.

Until the age of 13, Alexey Nikolaevich studied at home, where he received a good education and knowledge of foreign languages.

In 1839 he was sent to the St. Petersburg school of guards ensigns, where Lermontov had once studied.

In 1843 he entered the Oriental Faculty of St. Petersburg University. However, the subjects that he studied “without any love” forced him to leave the university in order to pursue the “living” sciences, close to the “interests of the time” - history and political economy.

In 1844 Pleshcheev's first poems appeared, which he published in Sovremennik, Library for Reading, and Literary Gazette.

The first collection was published in 1846. The poet called them to a "valiant feat", believed in the "desired hour of liberation" of the people from the yoke of autocracy. He becomes a member of the society headed by Petrashevsky.

In 1849 the circle was destroyed. Alexey Nikolaevich, along with other members of the circle, was sentenced to death, which at the last minute was replaced by soldiery and exile. Deprived of "all rights and fortune", given to the rank and file in the Orenburg line battalions, he pulled the soldier's strap for almost 10 years.

In the mid 50s. Alexey Nikolaevich resumes his interrupted literary activity. He is an active employee of Sovremennik, in 1859-60 he unofficially edited the newspaper Moskovsky Vestnik.

Collections were published in 1858, 1861 and 1863.

In 1887, 1898 and 1905 - a complete collection of his poems.

In 1860 and 1896-97 - two volumes of stories and stories.

Pleshcheev publishes at this time "Stories and Stories" by I. S. Turgenev, seven issues of a useful manual for students - "Geographical Sketches and Pictures", literary collections for children. He writes a lot for the theater. The closure of Sovremennik and Russkoye Slovo put Pleshcheev in a difficult position, he was forced to serve as an auditor of the Control Chamber of the Moscow Post Office.

Since 1867, in connection with the renewal of Otechestvennye zapiski by Nekrasov, he collaborated with the magazine.

In 1872, Alexei Nikolaevich received permission to enter St. Petersburg and became the permanent secretary of the Nekrasov magazine, an active employee of it.

Since 1877 - head of the department of poetry. After the closure of Otechestvennye zapiski, together with the main group of members of the editorial board of this magazine, he moved to Severny Vestnik, where from 1884 to 1890 he headed the poetry and fiction departments. Pleshcheev cared about the success of the magazine and worked hard to improve its literary and artistic departments. He took an active part in the work of the Literary Fund, was the foreman of the Artistic Circle in Moscow, organized by Ostrovsky, one of the founders of the Society of Russian Drama Writers, chairman of the Society of Stage Figures, a member of the Theater and Literary Committee, an active member of the Society of Russian Literature.

The poems, included in the collection of 1846, attracted the attention of readers with their social orientation. Having experienced the strong influence of Pushkin, Lermontov, Ogarev, Alexei Nikolaevich continued the traditions of civic poetry.

His poem "Forward! without fear and doubt ... " was programmatic for Petrashevists. Nicknamed the "Russian Marseillaise", it sounded at meetings and May Day celebrations and became the workers' song, which was sung on the eve of the revolution.

The poem was no less popular "By the feelings of brothers, we are with you", which until recently was attributed to Dobrolyubov and Ryleev. Calling for fearlessness, it contributed to the rallying of progressive people, was the favorite in the Ulyanov family. The poet's poems had a tremendous impact both on the poet's contemporaries and on subsequent generations.

Neither arrest, nor soldiery, nor exile did not break the convictions of the poet, a passionate follower of Belinsky's ideas, his desire to honestly serve society as his muse. While still in exile, Pleshcheev closely follows the activities of Chernyshevsky, Dobrolyubov, Nekrasov. In the very first poems, written in the mid-1950s, motives of compassion for the grief of the people, for the fate of the oppressed, sound. The poet creates a series of poems, which calls for the young generation to fight for a new life ( "Oh, youth, where are you?"). The theme of love for the homeland and the people suffering under the yoke of autocracy passes through many of the poet's poems ( "Beggars", "Native", "Boring Picture", "On the Street").

The most powerful poem of this cycle is "The Motherland", which depicts the bitter life of a toiler in poor villages. The poet dreams of the day when the "hatred of the tribes" will disappear, when the "brotherly blood of the peoples will not be stained" ( "Are those days still far away?").

The realistic tendencies of Russian literature led to the development of the satirical genre in it. Along with Nekrasov, he turns to him in the 50s. and Pleshcheev, who owns a number of satirical works ( "My friend", "Happy", "Children of the century are all sick"). The most powerful poem of this cycle is "March of the Apostates"full of hatred for renegades and traitors. We find elements of satire in Pleshcheev's elegiac poems. The poet never stood aloof from public life, he responds to acute questions and political events, addressing young people, like-minded people, participants in the revolutionary movement. He again, as at the beginning of his path, raises the question of the purpose of the poet and poetry, and the poet is no longer only as a prophet predicting a formidable retribution, but also as a fighter.

Like Nekrasov, he turns to the images of the great people of his time. He devotes poems to Belinsky, Chernyshevsky, Dobrolyubov, which embody the characteristic features of the remarkable fighters of revolutionary democracy. And, despite the fact that not a single poem contains the addressee (because of the censorship that was especially rampant when these works were created), contemporaries recognized those whose appearance was embodied in the poems of Alexei Nikolaevich.

The defeat of the revolutionary movement in the 60s, the deaths of Dobrolyubov, Mikhailov, the arrest and exile of Chernyshevsky shocked Alexei Nikolaevich, he took these events hard. The working conditions were also depressing in connection with the onset of the reaction, the unusually difficult circumstances of his personal life. Pleshcheev was very upset in the 60-70s. that he could not say a "new word" to the "fresh fighters", that he had only to sympathize with those who continued the work to which he gave the best years of his youth. The poet painfully experienced his isolation from the peasant masses. He was tormented by the realization that he could not realize his ideals, that is, take a direct part in the struggle for the freedom of the people, and we find these reflections in a number of works ( "I feel sorry for those whose strength is dying", "Old Man", "So hard, so bitter and painful for me"). But the lyrical hero of Pleshcheev does not oppose people, society, but is closely connected with them. The poet never made compromises with his conscience, remaining faithful to the service of the fatherland.

A large place in the work of Alexei Nikolaevich in the 70s. occupies landscape lyrics, distinguished by simplicity, sincerity ("Summer Songs"). He gave a lot of strength and energy to the creation of children's literature, devoting beautiful poems to the smallest readers, imbued with ardent love for them. The humanist poet strove to acquaint the child with life, to explain the world around him. He painted beautiful pictures of the native nature of the "home side". These wonderful poems were appreciated by Varlamov, Mussorgsky, Grechaninov, Cui, Tchaikovsky, who wrote music on them.

The activity of Alexey Nikolaevich as a translator is of considerable importance. In translation, he saw the continuation of his original work, attaching great importance to the choice of the original. Despite the extreme need that forced him to translate for the sake of his daily bread, he regarded translation as a great and important tool in educating the reader, as a high art, as an artistic work. He penned the first Russian translations from Stendhal, Zola, J. Sand, Dode, Maupassant, Bret Hart; he is one of the first translators of Heine, Petofi, Byron.

Versatile educated, possessing a subtle aesthetic instinct, Alexei Nikolaevich was a prominent, talented critic who wrote many critical articles, reviews, reviews, published anonymously and under various pseudonyms in many newspapers and magazines.

Pleshcheev's critical reviews were highly appreciated by Dobrolyubov, Nekrasov, Ostrovsky. Articles by revolutionary-democratic critics, as well as editorial reviews of the Nekrasov magazines Sovremennik and Otechestvennye zapiski, reflected the attitude of progressive people to Pleshcheev's work, refuted the attempts of reactionary and liberal critics, who sought to distort the civic character of his poetry. Lyrics by A.N. Pleshcheev translated into many European languages.

Died - Paris.