4.1. The first wave of Russian emigration

The exaggeration of the tasks of the struggle for a brighter future, for a new man, led to the destruction of the most valuable cultural phenomena, to repressions against representatives of the old intelligentsia. The result of such a policy was the mass emigration of representatives of Russian culture.

The history of Russian emigration as a mass phenomenon began as early as 1920, when, as a result of the revolution and civil war about 2 million people were thrown out of their homeland. Fate scattered Russian refugees around the world. Famous writers, scientists, artists, artists, musicians, whose names have rightfully become the property of world culture, turned out to be outside of Russia. For various reasons and at different times, A. Averchenko, K. Balmont, I. Bunin, Z. Gippius, D. Merezhkovsky, A. Kuprin, Igor Severyanin, Sasha Cherny, M. Tsvetaeva, A. Tolstoy, P. Milyukov left their homeland , P. Struve, N. Berdyaev, N. Lossky, P. Sorokin, A. Benois, K. Korovin, S. Rachmaninov, F. Chaliapin and many other prominent figures of Russian culture.

The main reason for the emergence of Russian emigration in 1917-1925 is the rejection of the revolution of October 1917, the fear of its bloody reprisals against the "old" world, the death of the white movement, the civil war, in the fire of which 9 million people were destroyed.

As a result of the Bolshevik terror, powerful emigrant flows arose, one of which was directed to Europe (mainly Paris, Berlin), and the other to the East (to Manchuria and China).

At the same time, it should be clarified: there were various reasons that pushed the writers to emigrate. Not only fear of the revolution, but also a chance, a combination of circumstances, for example, for Severyanin, Kuprin or Teffi.

We immediately note the high educational level of the emigrants of the "first" wave: 3/4 with a secondary (pre-revolutionary!), A very significant number of people with higher education ...

By a Soviet decree of 1921, all emigrants were deprived of their citizenship and became "rootless". Emigration significantly increased the intellectual potential of Western Europe, contributed to the formation of an original cultural community, the flourishing of literature, journalism, and science. Russian scientific organizations were created.

Since 1921, scientific symposiums have been regularly held, and numerous scientific papers have been published.

The true “homeland” of the diaspora, which united all emigrants, was Russian literature. According to modest estimates, the “first wave” brought to the western and eastern shores about 2 million of our compatriots, whose life activity proceeded in the field of literature or was closely connected with it. Compare: the organized Union of Writers of the USSR in 1934 numbered about 600 writers.

Literature, however, remained the main bearer of the Russian national principle, a solid foundation for the life of our former compatriots. A Russian intellectual in exile, a taxi driver in Paris, or a worker at the Renault factory realized, not without reason: Pushkin and Tyutchev (so untranslatable into foreign languages) were their exclusive national property.

The national holiday was the Day of Russian Culture and the majority of Russian emigrants celebrated June 6, Pushkin's birthday, not by chance.

The center of Russian emigration of the "first wave" is rightfully considered Paris, where in the early 1920s more than 150 thousand "outcasts" lived. Ivan Bunin lived here, Marina Tsvetaeva, Zinaida Gippius and Dmitry Merezhkovsky, Alexander Kuprin - the flower of Russian literature of the 20th century.

Looking at the life of the Russian emigration, it is easy to see that it was different, and each of its representatives behaved in accordance with their ideas of honor and conscience, of the business that was the main thing for him on earth.

Emigrants treated differently in their homeland.

Marina Tsvetaeva, leaving for her homeland in 1938, understood that she was going to meet death. But - she could not live and even die outside the Motherland.

National talent - Alexander Kuprin - failed to adapt to someone else's life, having lost his spiritual nourishment abroad.

The great Russian writer Bunin resolutely rejected the "new" path of Russia, speaking with hatred about "Lenin's castles" in the famous "Cursed Days".

Ivan Alekseevich Bunin ended his famous speech “The Mission of the Russian Emigration”, delivered on February 16, 1924 in Paris, with the words: “Let it be our mission not to give in to temptations or shouts. This is deeply important both for this unrighteous time in general and for the future righteous paths of Russia itself. (...) They said - mournfully and touchingly - they said in ancient Russia: "Let's wait, Orthodox, when God will change the horde." Let's wait too. Let's wait to agree to a new "obscene peace" with the current horde "I.A. Bunin. Mission of the Russian emigration / Collected. Op. in 6 vols. T. 6. - M.: Santaks, 1994. - S. 420 ..

Such was the mission of those who, by the providence of God, ended up in a foreign land, without a homeland, but also in relative safety during the terrible revolutionary years and the endless decades of Bolshevik rule over Russia that followed them. It was impossible to agree with the new masters of life, to fulfill their political and cultural order, but it was necessary to preserve the homeland, language, culture, paternal faith, the very structure of interhuman relations in one's hearts and among one's own. Keep and pass on to children, and then to grandchildren. Many dispersed, dissolved "in the affectionate captivity of Europe," but still a "remainder" was preserved, just as invaluable for the future of Russia.

4.2. Creativity Bunin in the period of emigration

From Constantinople, Bunin moved to Bulgaria, then to Serbia, and at the end of March 1920 he arrived in Paris, together with his wife Vera Nikolaevna Muromtseva, who became his companion until the end of his days. He lived in Paris and in the south of France, in Grasse, a small town in the south, near Cannes. During the 33 years the writer lived in France, the country did not become his native, but he found the strength in himself to work.

Bunin settled in Paris, adjoining the right-wing, monarchist circles, grouped around the Vozrozhdeniye newspaper. In the early years of emigration, Bunin was a fierce fighter against everything connected with Soviet Russia. The USSR for him becomes the "kingdom of the Antichrist" - Lenin. “Planetary” cattle, “geek”, “moral idiot from birth”, “Russian Cain” - this is Bunin about the leader of the proletariat. “Lenin showed the world ... something monstrous, amazing: he ruined the greatest country in the world and killed several million people ... On his bloody throne, he was already on all fours ...”

These words are taken from the speech "The Mission of the Russian Emigration" delivered by Ivan Bunin in Paris on February 16, 1924. “The mission of the Russian emigration,” the writer said, “proved by its exodus from Russia and its struggle, its“ ice campaigns ”, that it not only for fear, but also for conscience does not accept Lenin’s hail, Lenin’s commandments, this mission now consists in continuing this rejection. “They want the rivers to flow backwards, they don’t want to admit what has happened!” No, not like that, we do not want the opposite, but only a different trend. We do not deny the fact, but regard it ... from the point of view not of the party, not of the political, but of the human, religious. “They don’t want to endure the Bolsheviks for the sake of Russia!” Yes, we don’t want to - it was possible to endure Batu’s bet, but Leningrad cannot be endured. “They do not listen to the voice of Russia!” Again, not so: we listen very much and - still the same and still prevailing voice of a boor, a predator, a Komsomol member, but deep sighs. I know that many have already surrendered, many have fallen, and thousands and thousands more will surrender and fall.

But all the same: there will be those who will never give up ... "

Ivan Bunin was one of those who did not give up, continued the fight against the Leninist-Stalinist regime until the end of his days.

Thirty-three years spent in a foreign land, "in a strange, hired house", away from the land that he loved "to the pain of the heart." What were they for Bunin the artist?

I think that this period was the rise of Bunin's creativity. Bunin's contemporaries unanimously noted that it was in exile that the artist created his most perfect, best things. Almost all of them are on Russian topics, about Russia.

The impact of emigration on Bunin's work was profound and consistent. The situation of a person, torn from his environment and deprived of a home, makes him seek refuge. For Bunin, memories of the old Russia were such a refuge: “Our children, grandchildren will not even be able to imagine the Russia in which we once (that is, yesterday) lived, which we did not appreciate, did not understand - all this power, complexity, richness, happiness…”.

The first year of emigration was for Bunin, in the words of one of the critics, "dumb." He reads L. Tolstoy, whom he loved all his life, and makes diary entries, realizing that he has lost everything - "people, homeland, loved ones." “Oh, how infinitely painful and sorry for that happiness,” words break out with a cry of the heart when remembering the past. But at the same time, blinded by hostility to Soviet Russia, Bunin attacks everything connected with it.

The return to true creativity is slow. The stories of the first years of emigration are very diverse in their subject matter and mood, but pessimistic notes prevail in them. The story "The End" is especially shocking, where the picture of the writer's flight from Odessa abroad on the old French boat "Patras" is realistically conveyed.

Living at home, Bunin believed that he was not obliged to write all his life on Russian topics and only about Russia. In emigration, he gets an unlimited opportunity to study and take material from another life. But non-Russian themes occupied an insignificant place in the post-October period of Bunin's work. What is the matter here? According to A. Tvardovsky, Bunin, like no one else, "owes his priceless gift" to Russia, his native Oryol region, to its nature. While still quite young, in an article about a poet from the people, his fellow countryman Nikitin, Bunin wrote about Russian poets - these are "people who are firmly connected with their country, with their land, receiving power and strength from it."

But now, being an exile, he, like no one else, suffered cruelly far from his homeland, constantly feeling the depth of the loss. Russia is the only place in the world where the writer feels Russian in all its fullness and uniqueness. And, realizing that he could not exist without Russia either as a person or as a writer, that his homeland was inseparable from him, Bunin found his own way of communication, returning to her with love.

The writer turns to the past and creates it in a transformed form. How great the writer's craving for his compatriots, how deep his love for Russia is, is evidenced by his story "Mowers", which deals with the Ryazan peasants, their inspired work, singing for the soul during haymaking on Oryol land. In the story “Mowers” ​​the main charm for him is not only in the peasants and their wondrous singing: “The charm was that we were all children of our homeland and were all together and we all felt good, calm and loving without a clear understanding of our feelings, for they are not needed, one should not understand when they are. And there was also a charm (already not recognized by us then) that this homeland, this common home of ours was Russia, and that only her soul could sing as the mowers sang in this birch forest that responded to their every breath.

It should be specially noted that all of Bunin's works of the emigrant period, with very rare exceptions, are built on Russian material. The writer recalled the Motherland in a foreign land, its fields and villages, peasants and nobles, its nature. Bunin knew the Russian peasant and the Russian nobleman very well, he had a rich store of observations and memories of Russia. He could not write about the West, which was alien to him, and he never found a second home in France. Bunin remains true to the classical traditions of Russian literature and continues them in his work, trying to solve eternal questions about the meaning of life, about love, about the future of the whole world.

As before, it shifts life and death, joy and horror, hope and despair. But never before has the feeling of the frailty and doom of all things - beauty, happiness, glory, power - appeared with such aggravation in his works. Contemplating the current of time, the death of distant civilizations, the disappearance of kingdoms (“The City of the King of Kings”, 1924), Bunin seems to experience painful calm, temporary satisfaction of his grief. But philosophical and historical digressions and parallels did not save. Bunin could not leave thoughts about Russia. In emigration, not only did Bunin's internal connection with Russia not be interrupted, but his love for his native land and the terrible feeling of losing his home became even more aggravated. Russia will forever remain not only the "material", but also the heart of Bunin's creativity. Only now Russia will completely withdraw into the world of memories, will be recreated by memory.

No matter how far he lived from her, Russia was inseparable from him. However, this was a retracted Russia, not the one that used to start outside the window overlooking the garden; she was and it was as if she had not been, everything in her was called into question and tested. In response to the pain and doubt in the image of Russia, the Russian that could not disappear and had to go further from the past began to emerge more clearly. Sometimes, under the influence of a particularly heavy feeling of breaking with his homeland, Bunin came to a real condensation of time, which turned into a cloud from which illuminating thoughts came, although the horizon remained hopeless. But the thickening of time did not always lead to darkness. On the contrary, Bunin began to see, looking for hope and support in Russia, pushed aside by him, more continuous and growing than, perhaps, before, when it seemed to him for granted and did not need approval. Now, as if freed by separation from shyness, words escaped from him, which he had not uttered before, kept to himself, - and they poured out evenly, freely and transparently. It is difficult to imagine, for example, anything more enlightened than his Mowers (1921). This is also a story with a view from afar and something in itself as if insignificant: the Ryazan mowers who came to the Oryol region are walking in a birch forest, mow and sing. But again, Bunin managed to discern in one moment the immeasurable and distant, connected with all of Russia; a small space was filled, and the result was not a story, but a bright lake in which the great hail is reflected.

The thought of the tragic fate of Russia illuminates with greater or lesser force all of Bunin's work of the emigre era.

The “eternal themes” that sounded in the writer’s pre-October work, reflections on the meaning of being, on love and death, are now, and more and more over the years, connected with the thought of Russia, which has receded for him into the realm of memories. Bunin the artist is now in the past, in pre-revolutionary Moscow, in estates that no longer exist, in provincial Russian towns. But the old themes and the past itself are transformed in his work by a new state of mind - a sense of some kind of tragic conjugation of his fate and the fate of Russia.

Unlike many Russian writers, who, like him, were forced to leave Russia, Bunin did not believe that he could not fully create in isolation from his homeland. Psychologically explainable: Bunin in exile managed not only to write a lot, but, retrieving from memory the living images of the outgoing Russia, to create several masterpieces one after another. Bunin said: he wrote all the best in exile, separation from Russia did not bother him, “we, writers, carry our homeland in ourselves” A. Baboreko, Verb of Times. Preface to the book: Bunin. Cursed days. M.: Soviet writer, 1990. - P.12.

One way or another, without turning into a political figure, Bunin fought Bolshevism with his professional weapon - the word. Many exiled writers fell silent for a time as "poets" and spoke as citizens in an attempt to open the eyes of the Western world and encourage it to intervene.

G. Kuznetsova, who knew Bunin closely during the years of emigration, the author of the famous Grasse Diary, wrote down her impressions of Bunin at the end of the 20s: “Now, when everyone is moaning about the spiritual impoverishment of emigration ... while other writers write or something - sour, or ecclesiastical ... in the midst of need, deprivation, loneliness, deprived of his homeland and everything connected with it, the "fanatic" Bunin enthusiastically glorifies the creator, heaven and earth that gave birth to him and made him see much more misfortunes, humiliations and grief than raptures and joys... Yes, this is a real miracle, and no one sees this miracle, does not understand! What, then, is the great gift of spiritual and bodily (despite everything) health that the Lord bestowed on him! .. ” Lit. inheritance, vol. 84, book. 2, M., 1973, p. 263.

The themes of the writer's pre-revolutionary work are also revealed in the work of the emigrant period, and even more fully. The works of this period are permeated with the thought of Russia, the tragedy of Russian history of the 20th century, the loneliness of modern man, which is only for a brief moment broken by the invasion of love passion (collections of stories "Mitina's Love", 1925, "Sunstroke", 1927, "Dark Alleys" , 1943, autobiographical novel "The Life of Arseniev", 1927-1929, 1933). Almost everything that he wrote in exile belongs to his best creations. The masterpieces of the emigrant period are the story "Mitina's Love", "The Life of Arsenyev" (perhaps the most "Bunin's work"), the collection of love stories "Dark Alleys" and the artistic and philosophical treatise "The Liberation of Tolstoy". The last book that Bunin worked on and which he failed to complete is "About Chekhov"

The events of 1917 strangely coincided with the impoverishment of Bunin's poetic gift. While in exile, he reworks early poems, selects new ones more rigorously. The few poems written in exile are permeated with a sense of loneliness, homelessness and longing for Russia.

But the highest achievements of his poetry are behind, Bunin transferred all the power of his lyricism to prose.

During the emigrant period, Bunin's prose becomes emotional, musical and lyrical. In emigration, Bunin felt even more acutely the mysterious life of the Russian word, reaching linguistic heights and discovering amazing knowledge folk speech. Everything he wrote in exile concerned Russia, the Russian people, Russian nature: Mowers, Bast Shoes, Far, Mitina's Love, the cycle of short stories Dark Alleys, the novel Arseniev's Life, etc.

Despite the fact that the idea of ​​Russia, its history and its future is organic for Bunin and that all his work is an indispensable service to this topic, in exile he sees pre-revolutionary Russia no longer the same as he saw it in "The Village", "Sukhodil" , "Night Talk". Almost the central character of his former work, the peasant, the peasant, is now disappearing from Bunin's field of vision. concept people's Russia Bunin was inextricably linked at that time with the idea of ​​​​a country predominantly peasant, peasant.

The disappearance of the peasant's period of emigration from Bunin's work led to the formation of a different, new social and ethical concept of Russia. The layer of intellectuals and semi-intellectuals, nobles and enlightened merchants is now in the center of his artistic attention, Bunin chooses heroes from his midst and draws conflicts.

Bunin now sees Russia (in " Clean Monday”, in any case) standing on the border of hostile, but with the same force influencing the worlds - Western and Eastern, European and Asian.

The pain from the catastrophe that has occurred has dulled over the years, notes of fatigue appear in Bunin’s answers to political questionnaires: “All the words have long been said, and my attitude not only to the Bolsheviks, but to the whole“ great and bloodless ”is well known ... Gradually, getting used to to life in a foreign land, the creative state returns.

After the release of the collection The Gentleman from San Francisco (1921) and the novel The Life of Arseniev (1929), Bunin's literary fame spread throughout Europe.

In March 1928, the Sorbonne opened international Conference on pressing issues in literature. Professor Nikolai Kulman made a big report “Ivan Bunin. His literary activity in France. “After the death of Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy,” he told the audience, “Bunin constantly surpassed all Russian writers in artistic skill and talent, clarity and elegance of style, in power of image and variety of subjects.” Lit. inheritance, vol. 84, book 2, M., 1973, p. 284. .

This was not a random statement. By this time, three volumes of Bunin's works had been published in England and America, two volumes - in Germany. A large number of books published in France, translated into Swedish, Hungarian, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Hebrew, Slavic languages.

He was highly valued by R.-M. Rilke, Thomas Mann, F. Mauriac, R. Rolland...

4.3. "A book about nothing" - a book about a lot

Once abroad, a few years before the start of work on the novel about Arseniev, Bunin, tormented by the position of an outcast, disbelief in his creative abilities, fell into a period of creative crisis caused by a clear sense of the need for new creative impulses. Emigration not only deprived him of fresh impressions, but also exacerbated his predisposition to what he called "sadness", but which was something more severe - "longing of being." An entry dated October-November 1921 clearly testifies to the grave condition in which Bunin was during these years: “All days, as often as before, and especially these last damned years, maybe > that have already ruined me - torment, sometimes despair - a fruitless search in the imagination, an attempt to invent a story - although why is this? - and attempts to neglect this, but to do something new, long-desired, and for nothing there is not enough courage, or something, skill, strength (and, maybe › f‹be › and legitimate artistic grounds?) - start the book that Flaubert dreamed of, " a book about nothing”, without any external connection, where to pour out your soul, tell your life, what you happened to see in this world, feel, think, love, hate” I.A. Bunin. Diaries. // Collection. op. in 6 volumes. M.: Fiction, 1988. V.6, p. 254..

Such a book later turned out to be The Life of Arseniev, for which, as we now see, Bunin was internally prepared already at the very beginning of the 1920s. This “book about nothing” actually turned out to be a book about a lot of things: about love, about death, about the tragic joy of existence in a formidable and at the same time beautiful world; a book about Russia and the creative power of memory.

Many Russian writers who ended up in exile turned to artistic memoirs, memories of their homeland. You can call A.N. Tolstoy ("Nikita's Childhood"), A.I. Kuprin ("Junkers"), I.S. Shmelev, B.K. Zaitsev and others. The novel "The Life of Arseniev" is in the same row. This is Bunin's most remarkable book in exile and the most "Bunin" work. Mark Aldanov called it "one of the brightest books of Russian literature" Aldanov M.A. Comments. // Bunin I.A. Sobr. cit.: In 8 volumes - M., 1996 ..

Among the works belonging to the so-called artistic autobiographies, "The Life of Arseniev" occupies a unique place. When some contemporaries considered this book as a biography of the author himself, Bunin was indignant, ardently objected to the assertions that he described his own life in The Life of Arseniev, although he did not deny the introduction of "a lot of autobiographical".

Bunin told the journalist and writer Andrei Sedykh: “They think that the story of Arseniev is my own life. But this is not so. I can't write the truth. I also invented my heroine. And before that he entered her life that, believing that she existed, and fell in love with her ... I take a pen in my hands and cry. Then I started seeing her in my dreams. She appeared to me the same as I imagined her. ... I woke up one day and I think: Lord, but this, perhaps, is my main love in my whole life. But it turns out that she was not there ... "Baborenko A.K. I.A. Bunin. Materials for a biography (from 1870 to 1917). Ed. 2nd. - M.: Fiction, 1983. - S. 48 - 49.

Such testimonies of Bunin are very valuable, because they help to understand the originality of his autobiography. When Bunin objected to the allegations that allegedly Arseniev was just his pseudonym, and that all the actions and thoughts of the hero are a reflection of the author's biography, he, of course, was right. For he protested against conjectures that he was only engaged in transplanting his own biography into a novel. He agreed with something else: with the fact that he creatively rethought the circumstances of his life, permeated them with his “fantasy”, and was able to fall in love with his creations, like Pygmalion with Galatea.

In one of the interviews, he admitted: “You can, if you wish, consider this novel an autobiography, since for me every sincere novel is an autobiography. And in this case one could say that I am always autobiographical. Every piece reflects my feelings. This, firstly, enlivens the work, and secondly, it reminds me of youth, youth and life at that time. I.A. Bunin. Materials for a biography (from 1870 to 1917). Ed. 2nd. - M.: Fiction, 1983. - S. 49. thoughts, reflections and experiences” Baboreko A.K. I.A. Bunin. Materials for a biography (from 1870 to 1917). Ed. 2nd. - M .: Fiction, 1983. - P. 49 .. This is not an autobiography of the writer, as many critics believed, which infuriated Bunin. Ivan Alekseevich argued that any work of any writer is autobiographical in one way or another. If a writer does not put a part of his soul, his thoughts, his heart into his work, then he is not a creator... , inherent only to me, the vision of the world and my thoughts, reflections and experiences caused in connection with this ”Baborek A.K. I.A. Bunin. Materials for a biography (from 1870 to 1917). Ed. 2nd. - M .: Fiction, 1983. - P. 49 ..

Therefore, his autobiographical basis is undeniable. But it is important to note that the childhood and adolescent impressions reflected in it, life on the estate and studying at the gymnasium, pictures of nature and the life of the impoverished nobility serve only as a canvas for Bunin's philosophical, religious and ethical concept. Such an artistic rethinking of his own biography made it possible for V.F. Khodasevich to call Bunin's novel "a fictitious autobiography", "an autobiography of a fictitious person" Baboreko A.K. Comments // Bunin I.A. Sobr. cit.: In 8 volumes - M., 1996. - V.5. -FROM. 567 - 568. .

This is not an autobiographical work like Tolstoy's trilogy, where one's own life is retold from some poetic distance. "Arseniev's Life" is a recreation of one's perception of life and the experience of this perception ("perception of perception" or memory of memory). This is a memory novel, a novel about the past, present and future of Russia, a confession novel, a novel a hymn to the world and human life. Bunin constantly strives to overcome time: the novel contains the time of the past and the time of the present narrative, there are frequent "transfers" from one time to another, violations of the temporal sequence. But at the same time, this is not an objective reconstruction of the past, but the creation of a special world, a different reality thanks to the author’s consciousness: “insignificant and ordinary things”, transforming, become mysteriously beautiful. "The Life of Arseniev" is a unique work in Russian literature, which developed before Bunin in line with Tolstoy-Dostoevsky psychologism.

The idea of ​​the book about Alexei Arsenyev was to write "The Life of an Artist" - a poet, in whose soul "all the impressions of being" are melted down from childhood, in order to be subsequently translated into words. Therefore, "The Life of Arseniev", on the one hand, is really an autobiography of a fictional person: a certain collective "born poet", and not a specific Ivan Alekseevich Bunin. On the other hand, this book is the most confessional of Bunin's creations - such is its dialectics, the dual unity of reality and fiction, the fusion of truth and poetry, reconstruction and transformation. Hence the two-dimensional nature of the book, the constant presence of the author, who has already gone through a considerable life path, his current point of view, his current worldview, as if merging into that old one; interpenetration of past and present; a return to childhood, to youth - and then a "leap" into today, into one's own sixtieth birthday; now dissolving in the past, now retrospectively recreating it. All this creates a kind of flowing "stream of consciousness", embodied in the same fluid, uninterrupted, unhurried and smooth, with long periods, lyrical prose.

The book allows the reader to better understand Bunin the man, to assess the scale of the personality of Bunin the writer - Nobel laureate, who received in his homeland, due to the fateful course of history, only a posthumous vocation.

"The Life of Arseniev" is a novel - a reflection on the bygone Russia of pre-revolutionary times, with which Bunin's whole life, all his work and all his thoughts are connected. He repeatedly reminds of his belonging to the Russian nation: “everything among which I lived was very Russian ..” I.A. Bunin. Arseniev's life / Sobr. op. in 6 vols. T.5. - M.: Santaks, 1994. - S. 50., “I grew up in the times of the greatest Russian power and its great consciousness I.A. Bunin. Arseniev's life / Sobr. op. in 6 vols. T.5. - M.: Santaks, 1994. - P. 73. ".

Carefully, but very biasedly, Bunin traces the history of Russia as it took shape at the turn of the century. For him, this is the story of his fall, savagery, death. He admires the "Russian strength" and the "huge consciousness of it" that grew in the era of Arseniev's youth. However, Bunin immediately asks: “Where did she go later, when Russia was dying? How could we not defend everything that we so proudly called Russian, in the strength and truth of which we seemed to be so sure? I.A. Bunin. Arseniev's life / Sobr. op. in 6 vols. T.5. - M.: Santaks, 1994. - P.54.

Bunin the artist has always been aware of man as a link in the chain of generations. This theme also recurs in the novel. The memory of history, the memory of generations lives consciously or unconsciously in every person and drives, along with the influence of modernity, his actions, determines his motives and inclinations. Bunin took this idea back in the 1900s from Eastern philosophical teachings, which he became interested in after his travels in the East. But in the novel, this idea has taken on a new meaning. It was important for Bunin to say that the process of perceiving modernity is nothing more than the recognition of the past, irretrievably gone ...

Artistic memory, according to the late Bunin, is able to elevate a person above the chaos of passing life, therefore it is more real than the flow of direct influences of reality. Outside of aesthetics, according to Bunin, it is pointless to seek a justification for being, only creativity gives it meaning.

At the heart of Bunin's narrative is almost always a stream of memory. Moreover, memory for Bunin exists in the form of a sense of one's own inseparable connection with "All-Being" (the term used by Bunin), with ancestors, as a recollection of one's former lives. Hence Bunin's distrust of rationalism - the main thing in human perception is intuition. An existence without memory is the greatest misfortune. Only the past fixed by memory constitutes for Bunin a subject of high art.

It is impossible to understand and evaluate the moment we are experiencing at the same time (the delay in our awareness is conveyed by Bunin in one of his best stories - “Sunstroke”). Life as it is is just a material from which the human soul, with the help of memory, produces something of aesthetic value. That is why Bunin feels hostility to the category of the future, where only one thing is possible - death. The writer is trying to fight against time, trying to return the "lost time" (this is what will manifest itself in his autobiographical novel "The Life of Arseniev").

“Things and deeds, if they are not written, are covered with thee and indulge in the coffin of unconsciousness, while the writing is as if animated ...”. I.A. Bunin. Arseniev's life / Sobr. op. in 6 volumes. M.: Santaks, 1994. - V.5, p.5. With these words, "The Life of Arseniev" opens.

At the heart of the novel is the contemplation and experience of memorable moments of life, one's past, one's spiritual world as the author sees them today. The main mood of the novel is conveyed by the lyrical exclamation of the writer when he recalls the past time and its people: “A fairy tale, a legend - all these faces, their lives and eras! Exactly the same feelings I experience now, resurrecting the image of who I once was. Was it really?..” I.A. Bunin. Arseniev's life / Sobr. op. in 6 vols. T.5. - M.: Santaks, 1994. - P. 47 ..

In this amazing book, prose and poetry, an epic narrative about Russia and lyrics have merged, creating a new genre of "lyrical epic". And although the leitmotif of the novel is the theme of loss, however, unlike Bunin's other works of that time, it is devoid of a tragic tone. It sounded the passionate conviction of the writer in the power and power of love over death.

Bunin had been working on the novel since 1930 for several years. Five parts of the novel were written, and the hero was brought to the age of twenty; on this, the author left him and did not return to the idea, no matter how they persuaded him to do this ...

The novel is a lyrical confession of the hero, a story about the formation of the artist's personality "from the beginning of days", through the delights and torments of first love, the joy of creativity to the realization of the irretrievability of the departed. The narrative is built as an internal monologue of the hero-narrator, a stream of consciousness. His personality comes to the fore, the main subject of the image is his inner life, emotionally colored impressions, non-rational aspirations, thoughts and feelings. Bunin's novel differs significantly in its structure and mood from other autobiographical works ("Childhood. Adolescence. Youth" by L.N. Tolstoy, "Family Chronicle", "Childhood years of Bagrov-grandson" by S.T. Aksakov, "Nikita's Childhood" A .N. Tolstoy), in which the existence of many people is described, I. Bunin reveals the “story of the soul” mainly in a lyrical monologue.

Konstantin Paustovsky said about Bunin's novel that "The Life of Arseniev" in some of its parts resembles the paintings of the artist Nesterov "Holy Russia" and "In Russia". These canvases are the best expression of the country and the people in the understanding of the artist ... "He also wrote:" This is not an autobiography. This is an ingot of all earthly charms, sorrows, reflections and joys. This is an amazing summary of the events of a single human life ... "And further:" The novelty of "Arseniev's Life" is also in the fact that not one of Bunin's works reveals with such simplicity the phenomenon that we, due to the paucity of our language, call "inner world" of man. As if there is a clear boundary between the inner and outer world? As if external world does not fail to be one with the inner world? K. Paustovsky. Alone with autumn. Portraits, memoirs, essays. M., 1957. - pp. 72-73.

The central and only hero of the book, Aleksey Arsenyev, is not only a Russian youth who is being formed in the conditions of Russian reality at the end of the 19th century, going through the temptation of radical movements and the liberation struggle of that time, but also a man whose inner experience has already absorbed a tragic, but also a majestic experience. century of the twentieth, world wars and revolutions, who survived the bitterness of disappointment and the loss of his homeland. In one image, Bunin combines the seemingly incompatible - the 19th century with the 20th, a Russian noble offspring and a young man who grew up in the conditions of European spiritual life in the 20s and 30s.

own life, biography, inner world, which in many ways serve as source material for I. Bunin, are combined with fiction and generalization. As a result, the author-narrator acts primarily as an artistic image, which is similar and at the same time not similar to a real biographical author. The "equality" of the author and the hero-narrator ultimately comes down not to biographical, historical and concrete everyday realities, but to similar spiritual processes and emotional experiences (a sense of harmony in childhood, the torments of growing up, first loves, the temptation of creativity, the test of the catastrophe that befell Russia, loss of homeland, pain and bitterness of exile). The author and the narrator are to some extent identical. However, with all this, the narrator is and acts in the same world as the rest of the characters, while the author, although embodied in textual reality, still rises above it, stands above the characters. People - relatives, friends, acquaintances - were only part of the vast world that entered the boy with countless incarnations, and first of all, of course, nature.

The main character of the book, Alexei Arseniev, the writer gives his own traits of an artist, creator, poet. Alexey Arseniev is endowed with a heightened sense of life, which is why he also has an increased sense of death, it is natural for him to think about unsolved mystery beginning and end of existence, about the meaning of being, and, of course, about one's own destiny in life.

These questions always worried Bunin, like any great artist, and he could not help but write about it in his book, consecrated life creative personality.

According to the researchers, the “Life of Arseniev” combines everything written earlier. The themes and moods of previous works are somehow reflected in this novel. This novel, as it were, sums up the entire stormy work of the great Russian writer.

"The Life of Arseniev" was written at that period of the writer's life, when the heightened sense of being characteristic of Bunin not only did not weaken over the years, but, on the contrary, became more and more strengthened, acquiring new shades. The heightened sense of the "mysteries and abysses" of life, of its every moment, had the reverse side of an equally heightened sense of the end, of the same unsolvedness of it, as well as the beginning of any existence. A person does not know his beginning, does not remember and cannot remember it, and in the same way does not know and does not comprehend what will happen when his life ends. This thought of Bunin, born in his travel diaries of the 1910s, roams through many of his mature and late works. It is also relentlessly present in The Life of Arseniev, not always expressed directly, but constantly implied. It is characteristic that the so-called momentary existence acquired more and more value for Bunin over the years; I wanted to save him from the blows of fate, each of which could turn out to be fatal, to prolong his, sometimes painful, charm ...

"The Life of Arseniev" is not only Bunin's confessional book, full of resurrections of past feelings, but also the final one, but also mercilessly polemical in relation to his own past. Bunin could to some extent dispute Arseniev's autobiography, but the author's confessional intensity betrays him, he absorbed the dominant elements of his work: thoughts, prejudices, prejudices, hatred - everything that was and remains inherent in the author of this confession.

The fact that the “late” Bunin created the book can be seen, if only by the fact that he not only carefully avoided public issues in it, but, on the contrary, could not resist, grinning venomously at the “frivolity, enthusiasm that was so inherent in the noble tribe and did not leave the Radishchevs, Chatskys, Rudins, Ogarevs, Herzens even before gray hair... "I.A. Bunin. Arseniev's life / Sobr. op. in 6 vols. T.5. - M.: Santaks, 1994. - P.73. He believed that all this was from a desire for romance, from “a thirst for cheerful idleness under the guise of vigorous activity, intoxication with gatherings, noise, songs, all sorts of underground dangers .. dreams of searches and prisons, high-profile trials and comradely trips to Siberia, to hard labor, for the Arctic Circle!” I.A. Bunin. Arseniev's life / Sobr. op. in 6 vols. T.5. - M.: Santaks, 1994. - P.74.

He did not understand aimless activity and did not recognize “work for the benefit of society”: “How, should I sacrifice myself to some eternally drunk locksmith or horseless Klim, and Klim is not alive, but collective, who in life is noticed so as little as any cab driving along the street ... "I.A. Bunin. Arseniev's life / Sobr. op. in 6 vols. T.5. - M.: Santaks, 1994. - P.152. “I did not feel and do not feel any duty to the people. Neither sacrifice myself for the people, nor “serve” them… I can’t and don’t want to…” I.A. Bunin. Arseniev's life / Sobr. op. in 6 vols. T.5. - M.: Santaks, 1994. - S.142.

He advised future generations of writers: “Here you need to write about roofs, about galoshes, about backs, and not at all in order to“ fight arbitrariness and violence, protect the oppressed and destitute, give bright types, draw broad pictures of the public, modernity, its moods. and currents!” I.A. Bunin. Arseniev's life / Sobr. op. in 6 vols. T.5. - M.: Santaks, 1994. - S.209., because "the public is not the business of the poet" I.A. Bunin. Arseniev's life / Sobr. op. in 6 vols. T.5. - M.: Santaks, 1994. - S.183 .. He admires Russian literature: Pushkin, Lermontov, Tolstoy, Gogol. “The Tale of Igor's Campaign” “drove him crazy” I.A. Bunin. Arseniev's life / Sobr. op. in 6 vols. T.5. - M .: Santaks, 1994. - P. 161 .. And what more Russian work can you find! More than once he recalls Russian fairy tales. No wonder they said in Russia: "A fairy tale is a lie, but there is a hint in it."

But the main truth of the book is the truth of the poet's confession. In this confession, creative and human, the whole world subject to Arseniev's consciousness will be drawn. The very birth into the world, the awareness of this event goes into the treasury of Alexei Arseniev's spiritual impressions, in order to stay there for the rest of his life.

Bunin "gave" Arseniev his passionate love for nature, hypersensitivity to it. Every word is permeated with admiration for Russian nature and admiration for it. So you see in front of you the “lilac blue of the sky” I.A. Bunin. Arseniev's life / Sobr. op. in 6 vols. T.5. - M .: Santaks, 1994. - P. 43., "mighty branched oaks" I.A. Bunin. Arseniev's life / Sobr. op. in 6 vols. T.5. - M.: Santaks, 1994. - P. 82., "golden-red woodcock" I.A. Bunin. Arseniev's life / Sobr. op. in 6 vols. T.5. - M.: Santaks, 1994. - P.55 .. Philosophical and contemplative attitude to nature prompted Arsenyev to think (not mature by age) about the mysteries and meaning of being itself, the universe, about the infinity of time and space, which one cannot comprehend the human brain ... Every impression of life was "melted" in the mind of the boy; his soul was not "lazy", but, on the contrary, tirelessly carried on its "secret work".

Each of the five books of Arseniev's Life contains stages, milestones of this spiritual work that takes place in the hero. Home, parents; surrounding nature; first seen death; religion; reading Pushkin and Gogol; admiration for brother George; bureaucracy and dullness of the gymnasium; first loves; the desire to know the world and the first travel. And - already from school years (and maybe even earlier?) - a vague desire to express, to express oneself, languishing from the impossibility of doing this - the first dreams of creativity. Arseniev wants to “invent something and tell it in verse”, “understand and express something that is happening” in himself.

The second book begins with a description of the road and a new feeling of the little hero: "For the first time I felt the poetry of the forgotten big roads, receding into the legend of Russian antiquity." And further: “What was the charm of that ... what I felt then? In the feeling of Russia and the fact that it is my homeland? In a sense of connection with the past, distant, common, always expanding our soul, our personal existence, reminiscent of our involvement in this common? These words give rise to many thoughts and associations: the great roads of Russia, the feeling of connection with her, with her past, the consciousness of her involvement in all this, which has not been lost until the end of days. This is the origin of the days. In chapter II, the theme is repeated: "Very Russian was everything in the midst of which I lived in my adolescence."

The most important part of Arseniev's Life is the fifth book. It talks about the final formation of Arseniev into a poet. Bunin omits the difficult years of his life, the years of need, random and uninteresting work, mental depression. Arseniev, as it were, steps over this entire period. Left alone with himself after parting with his beloved, he devotes himself entirely to the struggle with “impossibility”: with himself and with the world, with what he seeks to express in words and what is not given to him. And this struggle for the most important happiness is to learn to “form in oneself something truly worthy of writing from what life gives” I.A. Bunin. Arseniev's life / Sobr. Op. in 6 vols. T.5. - M.: Santaks, 1994. - S. 312. - obscures all other feelings and aspirations. And one fine day, the happiness of creativity suddenly opens up to him, when peace and a very simple solution come to the place of mental anguish and painful searches: “without any pretensions, briefly write down something - all thoughts, feelings, observations.” This is how a lyric artist is born, a poet who must write about everything that he observes and feels. This is how the sense of duty of the artist is born, as organic as the need for creativity itself.

The artist who forever captured the terrifying orphanity of peasant Russia, its historically extreme type of "idiocy village life”, he now recalled:“ Russia in my years lived an unusually wide and active life, the number of working, healthy, strong people was increasing in it. However, wasn’t the primordial dream of milky rivers, of free will without restraint, of a holiday, was one of the main reasons Russian revolutionism? And what, in general, is a Russian Protestant, a rebel, a revolutionary, always absurdly detached from reality and despising it, not in the least willing to submit to reason, calculation, invisible, unhurried, gray activity? How! To serve in the governor's office, to make some miserable contribution to the public cause! Yes, for nothing - "carriage to me, carriage!" I.A. Bunin. Arseniev's life / Sobr. op. in 6 vols. T.5. - M.: Santaks, 1994. - P.74. The writer also speaks about the long-known pernicious passion of Russians - drinking. “Men say this over vodka: “How can you! From it, a denouement is made in a person! The famous “Rus is the joy of drinking” is not at all as simple as it seems. Isn’t foolishness, and vagrancy, and zeal, and self-burning, and all sorts of riots related to this “decree” ... ”I.A. Bunin. Arseniev's life / Sobr. op. in 6 vols. T.5. - M.: Santaks, 1994. - P.75. And, given that “primitive Russian people are subject to natural influences” I.A. Bunin. Arseniev's life / Sobr. op. in 6 vols. T.5. - M .: Santaks, 1994. - P. 68., then “liberty ... was inherent in the old days in Russia by far more than one nobility ...” I.A. Bunin. Arseniev's life / Sobr. op. in 6 vols. T.5. - M.: Santaks, 1994. - P.84.

But despite all the shortcomings, all the paradoxes of the Russian soul, the writer was proud that he was Russian: “Pride of what? By the fact, of course, that we are ... Russians, genuine Russians, that we live that very special, simple, seemingly modest life, which is real Russian life and which is not and cannot be better ... "I.A. Bunin. Arseniev's life / Sobr. op. in 6 vols. T.5. - M.: Santaks, 1994. - P.73. And even being far from his homeland (just at the time of the creation of the novel), he never forgot about this pride: “... Pride in Russia and everything Russian ... was .. in excess. And not only Rostovtsev could proudly turn pale then, repeating Nikitin’s exclamation: “It’s you, my sovereign Russia!”” I.A. Bunin. Arseniev's life / Sobr. op. in 6 vols. T.5. - M.: Santaks, 1994. - P.56. The novel "The Life of Arseniev" serves as another confirmation of this.

Now, for him, pride in Russia is pride in the old Russia, as it was before the revolution. But the greatness of such a mighty country could not sink into oblivion without a trace? Therefore, once again I want to repeat the question that runs like a leitmotif through, probably, all Bunin's works of the emigrant period: “Where did she go later, when Russia was dying? How could we not defend everything that we so proudly called Russian, in the strength and truth of which we seemed to be so sure? I.A. Bunin. Arseniev's life / Sobr. op. in 6 vols. T.5. - M.: Santaks, 1994. - P.54. It should be noted that by using the pronoun “we”, the writer takes responsibility for what is happening in Russia along with everyone else. I think he even blames himself to some extent for what happened.

Our fault is that we forget the lessons that history has given us. We repeat the same mistakes over and over again. And it is no coincidence that the writer punishes us all the time: we need to "remember and guard our blood." I.A. Bunin. Arseniev's life / Sobr. op. in 6 vols. T.5. - M.: Santaks, 1994. - P.6.

In exile, the question of the future remained shrouded in thick darkness for Bunin, it sometimes only vaguely arose. Only the past remained as the initial cause of the coming tragedy, there was a sensual perception of past reality. With his thoughts and soul he aspired to Russia. The last years of the old writer's life were overshadowed by a particularly acute need: he constantly lacked money for treatment, an apartment, taxes, and debts. But the indefatigable worker and ascetic of the writer's craft experienced a special melancholy and hopelessness at the thought that his books, useless to anyone, would gather dust on the bookshelves. He had reason to doubt, because during his lifetime the writer did not receive great fame, although he was not bypassed with high honors (assigning the title of academician of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in 1909, awarding the Nobel Prize in 1933). However, his works were published abroad infrequently, only in hundreds of copies, and were known to the narrowest circle of readers.

In letters and diaries, Bunin speaks of his desire to return to Moscow. For example, to Teleshov: “I am gray, dry, thin, but still poisonous. I really want to go home." Babarek. I.A. Bunin. Materials for the biography. M.: Hood. lit., 1967. - p. 228 . But in old age and in illness, it was not easy to decide on such a step. Most importantly, there was no certainty whether the hopes for a quiet life and for the publication of books would come true. The decree of the Soviet government of 1946 "On the restoration of citizenship of the USSR subjects of the former Russian Empire ..." the writer called "a generous measure." However, the Zhdanov decree on the magazines Zvezda and Leningrad (1946), which trampled on A. Akhmatova and M. Zoshchenko, forever turned the writer away from the intention to return to his homeland. He imagined the situation in Soviet Russia and he knew perfectly well that he would not be able to work on orders from above and would also not hide the truth. This is probably why, or maybe for some other reason, Bunin never returned to Russia, all his life, suffering from separation from his homeland. He refused titles and awards, from money and cottages, from everything - and died in his small apartment on Offenbach Street, in Paris, never seeing his homeland again.

In his memoirs, Bunin wrote: “I was born too late. Had I been born earlier, these would not have been my writing memories. I wouldn’t have to go through ... 1905, then the first world war, followed by the 17th year and its continuation, Lenin, Stalin, Hitler ... How not to envy our forefather Noah! Only one flood befell him...» A. Baboreko. I.A. Bunin. Materials for the biography. M.: Hood. lit., 1967. - S. 228.

Although Bunin's work received wide international recognition, his life in a foreign land was not easy. Written in the dark days of the Nazi occupation of France, Dark Alleys, the latest collection of short stories, has gone unnoticed. At the end of his life, Bunin created a number of more stories, as well as the extremely caustic "Memoirs" (1950), in which Soviet culture is sharply criticized, in which he openly wrote about his contemporaries, without embellishing anything, expressed his thoughts in poisonous - sharp assessments about them. Therefore, some essays from this book have not been published for a long time. Bunin was reproached more than once for being too critical of some writers (Gorky, Mayakovsky, Yesenin, etc.). We will not justify or condemn the writer here, but only one thing should be said: Bunin was always honest, fair and principled and never made any compromises. And when Bunin saw lies, falsehood, hypocrisy, meanness, deceit, hypocrisy - no matter who it came from - he spoke openly about it, because he could not tolerate these human qualities.

The bird has a nest, the beast has a hole.

How bitter was the young heart,

When I left my father's yard,

Say sorry to your home!

The beast has a hole, the bird has a nest...

How the heart beats sadly and loudly,

When I enter, being baptized, into a strange, hired house

With his old knapsack! I.A. Bunin. Poems. M.: Fiction, 1985. - S. 227-228.

These poems, imbued with a sense of loneliness, homelessness and longing for Russia, were written by Bunin in exile, which began for him in 1921. (There, not far from Paris, he is buried in the cemetery of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois.)

4.4. There is no future without a past. Comparison of "The Life of Arseniev" and "Cursed Days"

"The Life of Arseniev", just like "Cursed Days", is a reflection on Russia, its special historical destiny.

"Cursed Days" is a diary that reflects the reality that surrounded the writer in his last years life at home. The narration in the diary is, of course, in the first person. The entries are dated, Bunin writes them in sequence, one after another, but sometimes there are quite long breaks - up to a month or more. These are records that the writer made for himself, they were not originally intended for publication. Basically, the diary addresses the events of personal and social life, which are of particular importance for the writer. Therefore, the author is sincere, truthful, his reflection of events occurs immediately, "in hot pursuit." Here Bunin is not only an observer, but also an unwitting participant in all the events taking place. He could also really suffer at the hands of a rampant people, like any other person, he felt "in his own skin" the first consequences of the revolution - the division of property, the prohibition of using electricity, inflation, unemployment, hunger, the destruction of historical monuments, robberies, drunkenness, criminality , dirt and blood on the streets. Also in the diary there are thoughts and reflections of the author about what he saw and felt. The work is dominated by a sense of unreality, creepiness, the writer's rejection of everything that happens. In the Fatherland.

"Cursed Days" consists of two parts. In the first, Moscow part, descriptions of the events seen prevail among the records: street incidents, rumors, dialogues, newspaper articles. Here, it seems to me, the writer has not yet fully realized what consequences what is happening in the city and the country will have for him. In the second, Odessa part, the author mainly reflects on what he saw, about dreams, forebodings, experiences, this results in a dispute about the fate of Russia. Thus, we can conclude that at first Ivan Alekseevich was in a kind of “shock” from what he saw in Moscow, and his reflections on this are to some extent more emotional than analytical. To a large extent, "Cursed Days" is an associative perception historical events, in accordance with the uniqueness of the creative personality of I.A. Bunin. Only being at a distance from the Moscow events, he fully realizes their significance for Russia as a whole and for him in particular. To this are added the impressions received from the impressions received in Odessa. All this forces the great Russian writer to make the only right decision for him in this situation: to voluntarily leave Russia.

"The Life of Arseniev" is already a classic literary work, written according to all the canons of the literary genre for the reader. It was created by Bunin already in exile. As in Cursed Days, as well as practically in his other works, his creations, here the theme of love for Russia runs through the whole novel. But this is another love. Initially, it was love-pain, love-suffering, then it turned into love-remembrance. The time of action of I.A. It was no coincidence that Bunin chose the bygone, pre-revolutionary Russia that was lost for him and his like-minded people, with which creativity and life itself, the possibility of a creative life, were connected. He admired the strength and power of the then Russia, idealized it and at the same time thought: “Where did it go later, when Russia was dying? How could we not defend everything that we so proudly called Russian, in the strength and truth of which we seemed to be so sure? This is a period when all the bloody events were still ahead, but, nevertheless, their rudiments are felt throughout the entire novel.

"The Life of Arseniev" was created some time after the events that forced the writer to leave his homeland. Several years have already passed, the most acute pain of loss, sleepless nights, was behind. So much has already been thought and rethought that it’s time to go crazy. That is why he created "The Life of Arseniev", which became for I. A. Bunin an attempt to escape from reality and "return" lost illusions to Russia. He wanted to pour out his soul, to tell that he “had a chance to see, feel, think, love, hate I.A. Bunin. Diaries. // Collection. op. in 6 volumes. M.: Fiction, 1988. V.6, p. 254.", because it is impossible to forget such a thing. Therefore, pain is felt in every sentence, in every word. This pain will never disappear, it just takes on a different character. It is not known what was harder for Ivan Alekseevich: the acute pain of loss, when thoughts still glow: “Maybe they will come to their senses? Maybe they will understand that it is impossible to live like this? ”, Or the pressing, aching pain of longing, when he already understood that there was no turning back and that he was unlikely to ever see his homeland again. This pain-longing is the essence of Arseniev's Life. It is no coincidence that he made the hero of his novel first a child, then a young man who looked like the author, and it is by no means accidental that he considers the events that happen to the hero, as if from the height of the years lived, from the height of his bitter and unique life experience.

As in "Cursed Days", in "The Life of Arseniev" by I.A. Bunin repeatedly refers to the history of Russia. He recalls the former power and glory of the country, great people and great events, quotes the words of historians - Tatishchev, Klyuchevsky and others. In both works, Bunin comes to the conclusion: one cannot live in the future. Without knowing your past, without knowing the mistakes of history, you will not be able to build the future.

This is another hidden meaning of the “Life of Arseniev” described by the author in the first lines of the novel: “Things and deeds, if not written, are covered with you and indulge in the coffin of unconsciousness, while writing is like animated ...” I.A. Bunin. Sobr. op. in 6 volumes. M .: Santaks, 1994. - V.5, p.5 .. And this ideologically closes the novel with a work that seems to be completely different in spirit - “Cursed Days”. In his diary I.A. Bunin persistently recalls the preservation of memory and a real assessment of the events that preceded the establishment of Soviet power in Russia. In The Life of Arseniev, the writer tries to tell readers that one cannot build the future by destroying the past. Bunin wants the people to remember Russia as it was before the revolution, so that they do not forget their past, because without it there is no future. This is exactly what the people who established the "power of the Soviets" in Russia did not understand.

The original nature of Russia has always served as a source of inspiration for most Russian writers and poets. Ivan Alekseevich Bunin was no exception, who in his poem "Motherland" expressed the whole gamut of feelings in relation to the fatherland. We suggest that you familiarize yourself with a brief analysis of "Motherland" according to the plan, which will be useful to a 7th grade student in preparation for a lesson in literature.

Full text of the poem "Motherland" by I. A. Bunin

Under a leaden sky

Gloomy winter day fades,

And there is no end to the pine forests,

And far from the villages.

One mist is milky blue,

Like someone's mild sorrow,

Above this snowy desert

Softens the gloomy distance.

A brief analysis of the verse by I. A. Bunin "Motherland"

Option 1

In a short lyrical poem, "Motherland" creates a picture of a fading winter day. The poetic miniature of the poet resembles a pictorial sketch.

The poem sets the reader not only to a hidden contemplation of nature and intoxication with artistic images, but also to various thoughts: about the meaning of life, irrevocably passing time. Such a comparison creates a sad mood. The poet is at the same time intoxicated by the opened picture, and sad about the passing day.

Thus, thanks to a small poetic work by I. A. Bunin “Motherland”, we have the opportunity to look into our soul, into our inner world.

I. A. Bunin skillfully uses color epithets that help the reader see the picture depicted: the sky is deadly lead, the fog is milky blue, the distance is gloomy, the snowy desert. The depicted artistic images are filled with halftones, typical for the description of the passing winter day. In the lyrical picture created by the poet, Russian expanses, the immensity of native landscapes are guessed:

And there is no end to the pine forests,

And far from the villages.

In that lyrical work I. A. Bunin uses various artistic means to make the depicted poetic picture more expressive. For example, the personification "gloomy winter day fades" conveys a calm bliss, spilled in nature winter evening. Fog is associated in perception lyrical hero with gentle sadness:

One mist is milky blue,

Like someone's gentle sadness ...

The picture described in the poem is gloomy, gloomy, dim, but with its halftones it gives us the opportunity to color it in our own way, in accordance with our imagination, with our winter impressions. Homeland here - forests, sky, fog, distance ... a fairy tale.

Before us is revealed a picture of rural Russia, Russian expanses. And not only the space described in the poem expands in breadth, but also upwards: pines, dark, tall, stand as a wall in front of our mind's eye, as in Russian folk tales they stood between the heroes and their pursuers.

The forest does not give the impression of a desert at all, but the monotony of the landscape can be compared with it. The dullness of the landscape: dark sky, white snow, black silhouettes of pines - is softened by a white-blue fog, which the poet compares with someone's meek sadness. One gets the feeling that someone is carefully wrapping the earth with a warm, stuffy, soft blanket. The fog is not even white and blue, but milky blue, reminiscent of fabulous milky rivers flowing in the jelly banks of dreams, sleep.

Option 2

The nature of our homeland is able to evoke a wide variety of emotions and impressions in Russian writers and poets, its diversity and originality never left them indifferent, pushing them to create unique artistic images who take us all by the soul and awaken deep, quivering feelings for the place where he was born and raised. They wrote, Yesenin, Pushkin, Akhmatova, etc.

In two small quatrains, written by Bunin back in 1896, before he left the Russian land forever in 1920, the Russia that he took in his heart forever far away to a foreign land is described clearly, clearly and without any embellishment: old and gloomy , not yet stained with the blood of a fratricidal civil war, dull and devoid of joy, but so real and original, not devoid of its certain charm, dear and therefore still beloved and dear.

The poem begins with a dull and gloomy picture of one winter day going to sunset. Bunin very accurately conveys the mood of this day with the help of color epithets, helping readers to imagine the sky of a deathly leaden color, "milky blue" fog, a desert of snow and the distance lurking in the dusk. Before us appears a dull and gloomy picture of a winter day in Russia, with its boundless and immense expanses that stretch endlessly and wherever you look "there is no end to the pine forests and far from the villages."

If the first part of the work involuntarily causes melancholy and despondency, when everything around is gloomy and gloomy, the feeling of a “dead-lead sky”, the absence of people and signs of life, presses on the psyche, then the second quatrain is no longer filled with such a depressive mood and artistic descriptions of nature become softer. and even human.

For example, this is felt in the comparison of the milky blue fog with someone's meek sadness, which "softens the ghostly distance." In this comparison, the poet unites nature with the spirit of the Russian person, making them one in their meek sadness. In general, humility has always been inherent in the Russian peasantry, the sadness that Bunin noticed during his trips to the Russian outback in the eyes of children and adults was, in his opinion, a harbinger of those terrible historical events that befell the Russian peasantry in the future.

Nature and Russian people in this poem become one, because just as fog “softens the gloomy distance”, so light sadness makes a person’s face softer and defenseless, washes away despondency and hopelessness from him, adding features of spirituality and sublime feelings. After reading Bunin's poem, you experience a storm of opposite feelings, first it is despondency and even depression, and then enlightenment and bright sadness.

For Bunin, his homeland was and remained a country of contradictions, in which the broken ruts of dirty roads coexisted with the bewitching beauty of the landscapes around, ignorance and poverty with the beauty of the Russian soul. And although his feelings for her were very controversial and contradictory, he always kept her in his heart even in a distant foreign land.

Option 3

The poem "Motherland" was written by the poet Bunin just at the moment when he was not in a very good mood. At least, this can be seen from the way he describes in his poem many of the most unfavorable moments that occur in nature, especially Russian. Because Bunin is a Russian poet.

The author of the work describes nature in autumn, or rather - late autumn when the weather does not shine with beauty and tranquility. On the contrary, everything is rather sad, because there is no heat, the sun has set behind gray clouds. Around - cold, dank fog, in general - the weather is just awful. Nevertheless, Bunin is a realist, although it may seem that he worsens the visibility around him too much. But, after all, the nature and weather in late autumn is not the best, just someone prefers to remain silent about it or not pay attention. Bunin declares this directly, without any reservations.

If you read the poem a couple more times, you will notice that in the work "Motherland" there are still notes of optimism. It is they who brighten up the general state of the poem, preventing it from destroying the reader with a wave of pessimism.

This is that in the middle of the poem there are lines in which it is written that nevertheless, despite the terrible weather and cold, fog brings calm to worried hearts. In addition, if you notice, the author calls the fog with beautiful epithets, namely, milky blue fog. Which indicates that Bunin is still a realist, and not a pessimist.

Bunin's work is always very lively, and resembles photographs, like an image. After all, after reading his work, such as the work “Motherland”, you can see that the poet respected his country very much, and also loved it passionately, which is reflected even in this work. He saw the whole reality, which at that moment was not so attractive, and this applies not only to nature, and, nevertheless, he absolutely did not care that Russia at that time was not ideal.

The poem is written in two stanzas. It is not large in size, but the content is very significant. It is also, as it were, divided into two subconscious parts. The first part talks about the fact that nature is fading and gloomy around, and the second part, as it were, reassures the one who, despite the first part, has reached the second, which in fact, if you look closely, everything is not so bad.

The poem "Motherland" - analysis according to plan

Option 1

History of creation

In his youth, Ivan Alekseevich was passionately in love with Varvara Pashchenko. However, young people could not get married due to the fact that the Bunin family was experiencing serious financial difficulties. Things were so bad that the parents of the young writer were forced to sell all their property in order to somehow make ends meet.

It was very difficult for Ivan Alekseevich to part with his beloved, and at one time his relatives seriously feared for his life. It was during this difficult period of everyday hardships for Bunin that he wrote the poem "Motherland".

In two small quatrains, created by Ivan Alekseevich in 1896, that Russia is described without unnecessary embellishment, which the writer who emigrated from the country in 1920 forever kept in his heart.

Topic

In the center of the plot is a dull picture of Russian nature against the backdrop of a fading winter day. Unlike most domestic poets and writers, Bunin treated the surrounding reality with a large share of criticism. Such an approach can be safely called the harsh truth of life, not embellished with any fantasies and false phrases.

The poet is not inclined to idealize Russian nature. Moreover, he chooses the least suitable moment for her contemplation - last minutes passing winter day. The feeling of melancholy is intensified when describing the immensity of the expanses covered with gloomy pine forests.

However, the poem does not suppress a depressive mood. There are notes of optimism in Bunin's realism. Appeasement is brought by the “milky blue” fog spilled in space, which gives hope for a happy outcome.

This description of the Russian landscape does not prove that Bunin despised Russia. On the contrary, he passionately loved his homeland, and immensely yearned for it during his forced emigration. He did not close his eyes to the shortcomings and all the ugliness of reality, but this did not prevent him from experiencing the most tender feelings for his homeland.

Composition

The work consists of only two stanzas, but they fully manage to convey the mood of the author, his idea.

Compositionally, the poem is divided into two conditional parts. The first part is completely devoted to the gloomy landscape of Russia. Before the reader's eyes opens a very dreary picture of one unremarkable winter day at sunset.

With the help of expressive artistic means, the author manages to very accurately convey the mood of this day, its color palette. The vast expanses of Russia with its endless forests, described by Bunin, involuntarily evoke melancholy and despondency. The "dead-lead sky", the remoteness of human habitation and the dark pine forest create a depressive mood.

The second quatrain is more optimistic. He manages to smooth over the heavy feeling caused after reading the first part. The description of nature becomes softer and more unobtrusive, and evokes only light sadness.

genre

The work is written in the genre of landscape lyrics, and is a small miniature about a gloomy winter evening. through the prism artistic description nature, one can feel the mood of the lyrical hero, his difficult state of mind.

Poetic size- iambic tetrameter with cross rhyme.

means of expression

In his work, Ivan Alekseevich uses a variety of artistic means designed to give depth and expressiveness to the verse, to convey as accurately as possible the feelings that the poet experienced when writing these lines.

The detailed coloristic epithets (“deadly lead”, “milky blue”) are very eloquent, conveying the palette of colors of a dull winter day. Equally expressive are comparisons (“one mist is milky blue, like someone’s meek sadness ...”), personifications (“a winter day is gloomily fading”), hyperbole (“there is no end to pine forests”), (“Homeland is a snowy desert”) .

Option 2

History of creation

Bunin wrote the poem "Motherland" in 1896, when he was still a very young man and an aspiring writer. But it already traces the motives characteristic of the entire work of the future talented author.

The genre of the work - landscape lyrics. The poem is a small miniature about a gloomy winter evening.

Main theme

The main theme is a sad picture of the bleak Russian nature. Bunin, unlike many Russian poets and writers, was characterized by a critical attitude towards Russian reality. This attitude can be called the harsh truth of life, not embellished with false phrases.

Bunin does not idealize Russian nature. He chooses the most unfavorable moment for her contemplation: a gloomy winter sunset "under a deadly leaden sky." The dreary picture is complemented by a feeling of loneliness and isolation from the world.

If the majority of Russian authors admire the vast expanses of their native land, then Bunin sees in this only hopelessness and doom. Gloomy pine forests absorb the remnants of light. To the nearest housing, endless Russian miles. The reader's memory involuntarily brings up pictures of lonely travelers lost and frozen in the forests.

At the same time, Bunin's merciless realism always has a hint of optimism. Calm brings "milky blue fog", which gives hope and faith in a happy outcome.

Bunin, of course, passionately loved Russia. His work after the forced emigration is entirely imbued with memories of the abandoned Motherland. It’s just that the poet restrained this love with his mind, carefully analyzed it.

The combination of boundless love and harsh criticism is not an easy quality for a Russian writer. It is very easy to deny and vilify everything or, conversely, to idealize. Harmonious perception of unsightly reality is Bunin's true merit.

The poem "Motherland" shows the Russian landscape in negative colors. However, it warms my heart. The reader understands that native nature is still very close and understandable to the heart. Even death in the native expanses is more beautiful than in a foreign land. The softening of harsh assessments in the finale of the poem further confirms this idea.

Composition

The poem is composed of two stanzas. The first is entirely devoted to the gloomy landscape. The second is more optimistic, it smooths out the unpleasant impression of the first.

The size of the work is iambic tetrameter, the rhyme is cross.

Expressive means

The miniature uses detailed epithets: "deadly lead", "milky blue". Personifications are very expressive: “the day is gloomy fading”, “fog… softens”. Fog is at the same time compared to sadness. The poet successfully uses the oxymoron "snow desert".

The infinity of native expanses is emphasized by the repetition of the union: "and there is no end ...", "and far away ...".

The main idea of ​​the poem

Even recognizing the sad and dreary nature of Russian nature, Bunin finds a place for bright thoughts. The sadness and melancholy of a desperate person can brighten up a simple fog. It does not relieve danger, but brings peace and tranquility to the soul. Perhaps, in the image of fog, the writer foresaw the salvation of Russia from the coming troubles of the revolution and civil war.

Analysis of the poem "Motherland" by I. A. Bunin

Option 1

Ivan Bunin is one of the few Russian writers who, after the October Revolution, decided to leave Russia, believing that the country in which he was born and raised simply ceased to exist. It was not easy for the author of numerous works, who by that time was already recognized as a writer and publicist, to dare such an act.

However, the year spent in Odessa, where Bunin became an eyewitness to the ever-changing power, which was accompanied by bloody massacres, forced the famous writer to reconsider his attitude towards emigration. In 1920, Ivan Bunin left Russia forever and moved to France, regretting his decision from time to time, but making no attempt to return home.

Russia in Bunin's perception remained a gloomy, unkempt country, to which he dedicated the poem "Motherland" back in 1896. Two short quatrains, devoid of attempts to embellish the harsh Russian reality, subsequently became a kind of spell for the author. That old and devoid of civilization Russia, which has not yet become mired in bloody strife, the poet remembered just like that - gloomy, dull and bleak. However, it was the true homeland of Bunin, not devoid of originality and some charm.

Creating the image of Russia, the poet uses many epithets. So, in his perception, the sky looks “dead-sparkling”, resembling the face of the deceased not only in its color, but also in the indifference that is characteristic of abstract or inanimate objects. By itself, a winter day, according to the author’s definition, “gloomy fades”, without adding joyful attitudes.

At the same time, "there is no end to the pine forests, and far from the villages." This line indicates that before us are the author's guiding notes in poetic form. Probably, Bunin had to make a journey through the Russian hinterland, which so impressed him in his memory that it formed the basis of the poem "Motherland".

The second part of this work is already devoid of such a gloomy coloring and despondency, characteristic of the first lines. In particular, Ivan Bunin draws attention to the "milky blue" fog, which brightens up the ugliness of an overcast landscape and adds some mystery to it.

His poet compares with someone's meek sadness, and there is nothing surprising in this. After all, humility is one of the national traits of the Russian people, whose life Bunin perceives through the prism of communication with ordinary peasants during his many trips to the villages.

At the same time, the author believes that the sadness that lurks in the eyes of not only adults, but also children, is associated with a special state of mind of the Slavs, who seem to foresee what their life will be like, therefore, mourn numerous losses and troubles in advance. Thus, Ivan Bunin perceives the Russian people and native nature, as two parts of a single whole that are in harmony and can leave a deep imprint on each other.

After all, the fog that gives the Russian winter landscape special beauty, which “softens the gloomy distance”, has much in common with the age-old Russian sadness. It smoothes the gloomy faces of people, as if washing away the expression of hopelessness from them, makes them more spiritual and sublime. But at the same time, in Bunin's perception, Russia remains a very controversial country, where completely incompatible phenomena and concepts coexist perfectly, which, at the same time, perfectly complement each other.

Ignorance coexists with high moral qualities, the dirt of Russian roads - with gloomy and delightful landscapes in their pristine beauty. And the author calls all this in one word - the Motherland, for which he has very conflicting feelings.

Option 2

After the October Revolution, many writers remained in their native country - Russia, but not Bunin. He decided to leave the country, because in his eyes Russia had changed, and it was impossible for him to accept innovations.

While Bunin was in Odessa, he saw many unpleasant moments that are associated with a frequent change of power, it was accompanied by bloodshed. He was a defender of the Russian people, ordinary peasants, because he loved to travel around the villages, to be surrounded by the people of Russia.

Everything that he loves in his country was destroyed in order not to see the terrible consequences of the revolution, he takes an important step - he leaves his homeland, but this does not mean that he betrays Russia. For him, new orders and rules seem wild, he does not want to believe in them and renounce the old ones that are so close to him.

After which the writer decides to leave the country for France, for some time he regretted decisions taken but did not visit Russia. And so the poem “Motherland” saw the light of day, which describes and outlines the gloomy, terrible Russia of the twentieth century.

A small poem conveys the whole picture that Bunin hated. He was not afraid and portrayed the cruel reality from which everyone fled.

Russia in Bunin's poem does not move forward, stands still, loses its former features and seems wild to the writer.

But the second part differs significantly from the first in that it does not contain epithets and comparisons that induce a terrifying atmosphere. The fog becomes milky with blue, this Bunin shows the quality of Russia - humility. The writer learned about this trait, which is characteristic of the inhabitants of the country, from communication with peasants, because Bunin traveled a lot around Russia, often visited villages and villages.

Thus, it can be seen that Bunin shows the inconsistency of the inhabitants of Russia, because they themselves allowed negative changes, but still endure any difficulties, because such behavior is inherent in their soul.

The author does not abandon the Motherland, comparing it with his mother, he still loves the country, the people who are so close to him, but he cannot look at how everything that was created by hard work is destroyed. He is afraid that Russia will never return to its former appearance.

They mock you
They, oh motherland, reproach
You with your simplicity
The wretched appearance of black huts ...

So son, calm and impudent,
Ashamed of his mother -
Tired, timid and sad
Among his urban friends,

Looks with a smile of compassion
To the one who wandered hundreds of miles
And for him, by the day of goodbye,
Saved the last penny.
____
1891

Analysis of the poem

From the very first lines of the poem, the reader feels the poet's experience for his homeland, for the house where he was born. In the first quatrain, Bunin makes it clear that his homeland is miserable and too simple at first glance. Reading these lines, I imagined abandoned huts in late autumn from which smoke was pouring from a chimney. And although the field work is over, people are gradually creating comfort at home from what they have. And they don't have much - simplicity and "black huts". The poem was written in the young years of the poet, Bunin was then only 21 years old. But already at this age, judging by the poem, Ivan Bunin felt his civic duty and could not remain indifferent to the state of affairs in Russia. Just in these years, famine swept through Russia. The already "poor" Russia was starving. How can you not laugh?

But no matter what this Motherland is, it remains the Motherland forever. Like a mother ... And the poet, without sorrow, makes it clear that he is proud of such a mother, who saves her last pennies "by the day of a date." And you, who sneer at her, sneer further. And "be ashamed" if that's what you want...

Most of the epithets of the poem are painted in dark tones and carry a negative connotation. in a humiliating way in front of the "impudent" son .. What is this? What does Bunin want to say? Really, personifying the Motherland with his mother, the poet could not find a milder comparison. If you truly experience the words spoken by the poets, it becomes uncomfortable. I want to shout: "Where is your soul?! O son! Mother's son, son of his homeland."

They mock you
They, oh motherland, reproach
You with your simplicity
The miserable view of black huts ...

So son, calm and impudent,
Ashamed of his mother -
Tired, timid and sad
Among his urban friends,

Looks with a smile of compassion
To the one who wandered hundreds of miles
And for him, by the day of goodbye,
Saved the last penny.

Analysis of the poem "Motherland" Bunin

In the work of Ivan Alekseevich Bunin, the theme of the Motherland occupies a key place. Russian culture and history are the sources of his inspiration.

It has already become a tradition in every such poem to see the influence of Nekrasov's poetry, however, "Motherland" is written so excitedly and aphoristically that it is still one of the pinnacles of I. Bunin's work. By genre - patriotic lyrics, by size - iambic tetrameter with cross rhyme, 3 stanzas. Rhymes are open and closed. “They” and “you, Motherland” are the main characters this work. Here the reader sees patriotism not from the front side, not as a set of crackling phrases, but as complicity coming from the depths of the heart, empathy for all the troubles of Russia. I. Bunin's diary entry for this year contains a declaration of his love, blood relationship with ancient history country, with the wealth of the Russian language.

The motherland as a mother is a typical comparison for world artistic culture, but for I. Bunin it is not just an abstract image of a mother calling, for example, to exploits, but painfully cute features of an ordinary provincial Russian old woman, humble and loving. She admires her "impudent son", who left for the city, he seems to her so important, smart, kind. She rejoices that there are so many well-dressed friends around him. She is even a little ashamed that she is so old-fashioned and clumsy, stupid. Rejoicing at the meeting, she waits for the moment when, left alone, it will be possible to give her son the saved pennies. The poet does not use strong epithets, only three words convey his indignation, but what effect they produce: mock, impudent, ashamed. Each reader immediately recalls the memory when he himself was the same as this "son". There are no exclamations, only an ellipsis in the first stanza, and a bitter appeal in the second line. This detailed image of an ungrateful son and his timid mother is a response to the social and political views on Russia of those years, the thoughtless demands of revolutionary changes.

The revolution of 1917 separated the writer I. Bunin from Russia. Forced to emigrate, in his later work he tried to preserve the lost spirit and the features of the Russian past that were dear to his heart.

"Motherland" Ivan Bunin

Under a leaden sky
Gloomy winter day fades,
And there is no end to the pine forests,
And far from the villages.

One mist is milky blue,
Like someone's mild sorrow,
Above this snowy desert
Softens the gloomy distance.

Analysis of Bunin's poem "Motherland"

Ivan Bunin is one of the few Russian writers who, after the October Revolution, decided to leave Russia, believing that the country in which he was born and raised simply ceased to exist. It was not easy for the author of numerous works, who by that time was already recognized as a writer and publicist, to dare such an act. However, the year spent in Odessa, where Bunin became an eyewitness to the ever-changing power, which was accompanied by bloody massacres, forced the famous writer to reconsider his attitude towards emigration. In 1920, Ivan Bunin left Russia forever and moved to France, regretting his decision from time to time, but making no attempt to return home. Russia in Bunin's perception remained a gloomy, unkempt country, to which he dedicated the poem "Motherland" back in 1896. Two short quatrains, devoid of attempts to embellish the harsh Russian reality, subsequently became a kind of spell for the author. That old and devoid of civilization Russia, which has not yet become mired in bloody strife, the poet remembered just like that - gloomy, dull and bleak. However, it was the true homeland of Bunin, not devoid of originality and some charm.

Creating the image of Russia, the poet uses many epithets. So, in his perception, the sky looks “dead-sparkling”, resembling the face of the deceased not only in its color, but also in the indifference that is characteristic of abstract or inanimate objects. By itself, a winter day, according to the author’s definition, “gloomy fades”, without adding joyful attitudes. At the same time, "there is no end to the pine forests, and far from the villages." This line indicates that before us are the author's guiding notes in poetic form. Probably, Bunin had to make a journey through the Russian hinterland, which so impressed him in his memory that it formed the basis of the poem "Motherland".

The second part of this work is already devoid of such a gloomy coloring and despondency characteristic of the first lines.. In particular, Ivan Bunin draws attention to the "milky blue" fog, which brightens up the ugliness of an overcast landscape and adds some mystery to it. His poet compares with someone's meek sadness, and there is nothing surprising in this. After all, humility is one of the national traits of the Russian people, whose life Bunin perceives through the prism of communication with ordinary peasants during his many trips to the villages. At the same time, the author believes that the sadness that lurks in the eyes of not only adults, but also children, is associated with a special state of mind of the Slavs, who seem to foresee what their life will be like, therefore, mourn numerous losses and troubles in advance. Thus, Ivan Bunin perceives the Russian people and native nature as two parts of a single whole that are in harmony and can leave a deep imprint on each other. After all, fog, which gives the Russian winter landscape a special beauty, which “softens the gloomy distance”, has much in common with centuries-old Russian sadness. It smoothes the gloomy faces of people, as if washing away the expression of hopelessness from them, makes them more spiritual and sublime. But at the same time, in Bunin's perception, Russia remains a very controversial country, where completely incompatible phenomena and concepts coexist perfectly, which, at the same time, perfectly complement each other. Ignorance coexists with high moral qualities, the dirt of Russian roads - with gloomy and delightful landscapes in their pristine beauty. And the author calls all this in one word - the Motherland, for which he has very conflicting feelings.