The forest drops its crimson dress,
The withered field is silvered by frost,
The day will pass as if involuntarily
And hide behind the edge of the surrounding mountains.
Blaze, fireplace, in my deserted cell;
And you, wine, autumn cold friend,
Pour a pleasant hangover into my chest,
Minute oblivion of bitter torments.
I am sad: there is no friend with me,
With whom I would wash down a long parting,
Who could shake hands from the heart
And wish you many happy years.
I drink alone; vain imagination
Calls comrades around me;
The familiar approach is not heard,
And my dear soul does not wait.
I drink alone, and on the banks of the Neva
My friends are calling me...
But how many of you feast there too?
Who else have you missed?
Who changed the captivating habit?
Who from you was fascinated by the cold light?
Whose voice fell silent at the fraternal roll call?
Who didn't come? Who is not among you?
He did not come, our curly singer,
With fire in his eyes, with a sweet-voiced guitar:
Under the myrtle of beautiful Italy
He sleeps quietly, and a friendly cutter
Did not draw over the Russian grave
A few words in the native language,
So that once you find a sad hello
Son of the north, wandering in a foreign land.
Are you sitting with your friends
Is someone else's skies restless lover?
Or again you pass the sultry tropic
And the eternal ice of midnight seas?
Happy journey! .. From the lyceum threshold
You stepped onto the ship jokingly,
And since that time in the seas your road,
O waves and storms, beloved child!
You saved in a wandering fate
Beautiful years original morals:
Lyceum noise, lyceum fun
Amid the stormy waves dreamed of you;
You extended your hand to us from across the sea,
You carried us alone in a young soul
And he repeated: "For a long separation
We may have been condemned by secret fate!”
My friends, our union is beautiful!
He, like a soul, is inseparable and eternal -
Unshakable, free and carefree
He grew together under the shadow of friendly muses.
Wherever fate takes us,
And happiness wherever it leads
We are all the same: the whole world is a foreign land for us;
Fatherland to us Tsarskoye Selo.
From end to end we are pursued by a thunderstorm,
Entangled in the nets of a harsh fate,
With trepidation I enter the bosom of a new friendship,
The charter, stuck with a caressing head ...
With my sad and rebellious prayer,
With the trusting hope of the first years,
To other friends, he surrendered himself to a gentle soul;
But bitter was their non-brotherly greeting.
And now here, in this forgotten wilderness,
In the abode of desert blizzards and cold,
A sweet consolation was prepared for me:
Three of you, friends of my soul,
I hugged here. Poet's disgraced house,
Oh my Pushchin, you were the first to visit ;
You delighted the sad day of exile,
You turned his lyceum into a day.
You, Gorchakov, lucky from the first days,
Praise to you - fortune shine cold
Didn't change your free soul:
All the same you are for honor and friends.
We are assigned a different path by strict fate;
Stepping into life, we quickly dispersed:
But by chance a country road
We met and fraternally embraced.
When fate befell me with anger,
For all a stranger, like a homeless orphan,
Under the storm I drooped head languid
And I was waiting for you, prophet of Permesian maidens,
And you came, inspired son of laziness,
Oh my Delvig: your voice awakened
Heart heat, so long lulled,
And cheerfully I blessed fate.
From infancy, the spirit of songs burned in us,
And we knew a wondrous excitement;
From infancy, two muses flew to us,
And our lot was sweet with their caress:
But I already loved applause,
You, proud, sang for the muses and for the soul;
I spent my gift as life without attention,
You brought up your genius in silence.
The service of the Muses does not tolerate fuss;
Beautiful must be majestic:
But youth advises us slyly,
And noisy dreams delight us ...
We will come to our senses - but it's too late! and sadly
We look back, not seeing any traces there.
Tell me Wilhelm, or it was with us,
My own brother by muse, by fate?
It's time, it's time! our mental anguish
The world is not worth it; Let's leave the confusion!
Let's hide life under the canopy of solitude!
I'm waiting for you, my belated friend -
Come; the fire of a fairy tale
Revive heartfelt legends;
Let's talk about the stormy days of the Caucasus,
About Schiller, about fame, about love.
It's time for me too... feast, O friends!
I foresee a pleasant rendezvous;
Remember the poet's prediction:
The year will fly by, and I'm with you again,
The covenant of my dreams will be fulfilled;
A year will pass, and I will come to you!
About how many tears and how many exclamations,
And how many bowls raised to heaven!
And the first is fuller, friends, fuller!
And all to the bottom in honor of our union!
Bless, jubilant muse,
Bless: long live the lyceum!
To the mentors who guarded our youth,
To all honor, both dead and alive,
Raising a cup of gratitude to your lips,
Remembering no evil, we will reward for the good.
Full, full! and with a burning heart,
Again, to the bottom, drink to the drop!
But for whom? oh, guess what...
Hooray, our king! So! let's drink to the king.
He is a human! they are dominated by the moment.
He is a slave of rumors, doubts and passions;
Forgive him the wrong persecution:
He took Paris, he founded a lyceum.
Eat while we're still here!
Alas, our circle thins hour by hour;
Who sleeps in a coffin, who, distant, orphans;
Fate looks, we wither; the days are running;
Invisibly bowing and growing cold,
We are nearing the start...
Which of us is old age Lyceum Day
Will you have to celebrate alone?
Unfortunate friend! among new generations
Annoying guest and superfluous, and a stranger,
He will remember us and the days of connections,
Closing your eyes with a trembling hand...
Let him with joy, even sad
Then this day will spend a cup,
As I am now, your disgraced recluse,
He spent it without grief and worries.
Wherever fate takes us,
And happiness wherever it leads
We are all the same: the whole world is a foreign land for us;
Fatherland to us Tsarskoye Selo.
In the suburbs, 25 kilometers south of St. Petersburg, is the city of Pushkin (before 1918 - Tsarskoye Selo), named after the great Russian poet, whose talent in his youth developed here, and life was inextricably linked with these places.
History of Tsarskoye Selo
Initially, on the site of Tsarskoye Selo, in the 17th - early 18th centuries there was a Swedish manor (estate) "Sarskaya Myza". After the expulsion of the Swedes and with its development, the estate (manor) turns into a village, and the name "Sarskoye" in Russian is transformed into "Tsarskoye". In the 18th century, churches and palaces were built here, parks were laid out and ornamental ponds were arranged. Under Empress Elizaveta Petrovna, daughter of Peter I, Tsarskoe Selo develops and becomes the imperial residence, the center of the political and court life of the country.
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Pushkin at the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum
At the age of twelve, in 1811, Pushkin was brought to Tsarskoye Selo to study at the Tsarskoye Selo Imperial Lyceum, a privileged higher educational institution for the education of noble children, which was opened on the orders of Emperor Alexander I. It was during the years of study at the Lyceum that Pushkin's poetic talent was discovered and appreciated, during this period Pushkin created a large number of poetic works.
In 1817, Pushkin was released from the Lyceum with the rank of collegiate secretary. Memories of the years spent in the lyceum, of lyceum friends, remained forever in the soul of the poet.
Pushkin at the Kitaeva House
In 1831, after the marriage of A.S. Pushkin with N.N. Goncharova, the young family moves to St. Petersburg, and then, for the summer, to Tsarskoye Selo. Here, in the study in the Kitaeva House, where Pushkin and his young wife stayed, The Tale of Tsar Saltan, Onegin's letter to Tatyana, the poem "The more often the Lyceum celebrates" and other works were written.
Tsarskoye Selo on the map
The State Museum-Reserve "Tsarskoe Selo" is located at the address: Russia, St. Petersburg, Pushkin, st. Sadovaya, d.7.
Related materials:
Pushkin and Tsarskoye Selo. Speech by Innokenty Annensky at the Pushkin Feast at the Imperial Chinese Theater in Tsarskoe Selo.
Do you love museums? I love those in which the spirit is preserved, the atmosphere - whether the time, whether the owners. Today, October 19, on the anniversary of the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, it's time to take a walk through its corridors and classrooms.
The very creation of this extraordinary educational institution, its rules, and most importantly, of course, its students, still cause surprise and admiration.
An educational institution with a name borrowed from Ancient Greece was opened on October 19, 1811 in an outbuilding of the Catherine Palace in Tsarskoye Selo.
For 6 years, young nobles had to receive not only a gymnasium, but also a university education. In general, it is amazing what hopes were placed on them!
The emperor himself provided special patronage, and the first director was not a teacher, but a well-known Russian diplomat and educator V.F. Malinovsky.
It was the only educational institution of that time in which the Charter forbade corporal punishment. The main principle is respect for pupils, education of true sons of the Fatherland.
The list of students recruited for the very first year of the Lyceum is also amazing. I will name only a few - Pushkin, Pushchin, Kuchelbecker, Delvig, Matyushkin, Gorchakov, Korsakov, Volkhovsky. Not only their names went down in history, but also the ability to maintain lyceum friendship until the end of their days - an example that, perhaps, history does not know another. (Next, I will quote a lot of "Notes on Pushkin" by I.I. Pushchin, who, if not the first lyceum student, should have a conversation with us ?!)
Even in the summer, the parents of young nobles wrote petitions to the sovereign himself, and then those admitted to the exams underwent serious tests. Enrolled lucky ones then waited until October. Even at the exams, Pushchin met his future friend: “Some official came in with a paper in his hand and started calling out names. - I hear: Al. Pushkin! - a lively boy comes forward, curly-haired, quick-eyed, also somewhat embarrassed. [...] We all saw that Pushkin was ahead of us, he read a lot that we had not heard about, he remembered everything that he read; but his dignity consisted in the fact that he did not at all think of showing off and putting on airs, as is very often the case in those years (each of us was 12 years old) with hasty people who, for whatever reason, find a case for something earlier and easier. learn."
And then it came, the solemn day of the opening of the Lyceum.
“The celebration began with a prayer. Mass and a prayer service with blessing of water were served in the court church. We were present in the choirs during the service. After the prayer service, the clergy went with holy water to the Lyceum, where they sprinkled us and the whole institution.
In the lyceum hall, between the columns, a large table was placed, covered with red cloth, with a golden fringe. On this table lay the highest charter granted to the Lyceum. On the right side of the table we stood in three rows; with us - the director, inspector and tutors; on the left - professors and other officials of the lyceum administration. The rest of the hall, at some distance from the table, was all lined with rows of chairs for the public. All the highest dignitaries and teachers from St. Petersburg were invited. When the whole society gathered, the minister invited the sovereign.
This letter of amazing size and magnificence still lies on this table, only under a glass cover.
Everyone was shocked by the performance of the young teacher A.P. Kunitsyn.
Kunitsyn tribute of heart and wine!
He created us, he raised our fire,
They set the cornerstone
They lit a clean lamp ... *
Lyceum students will take exams in the same hall, in the presence of a high commission and their relatives.
Thanks to the notes of Pushchin and the memoirs of other lyceum students, the case went down in history when, in the presence of the famous, but then very elderly poet G.R. Derzhavin, the very young A. Pushkin read his poem “Memories in Tsarskoye Selo”. Pushchin writes about this: “Listening to familiar verses, a chill ran through my skin. When the patriarch of our singers was delighted, with tears in his eyes, he rushed to kiss him and dawned on his curly head, we all, under some unknown influence, were reverently silent. They wanted to hug our singer themselves, he was not there: he ran away! .. ”The same case is mentioned by Y. Tynyanov in the novel “Pushkin”, the same case is also in the picture by I.E. Repin.
And Pushkin himself would write many years later:
Old man Derzhavin noticed us
And, descending into the coffin, he blessed.
I. Pushchin describes in detail the premises of the Lyceum, the daily routine.
“The lower floor housed the economic department and the apartments of the inspector, tutors and some other officials serving at the Lyceum; in the second - a dining room, a hospital with a pharmacy and a conference room with an office; in the third - a recreational hall, classrooms (two with chairs, one for students after lectures), a physical study, a room for newspapers and magazines and a library in the arch connecting the Lyceum with the palace through the choirs of the court church. At the top are dormitories. For them, along the entire structure, arches were cut through in the internal transverse walls. In this way a corridor was formed with stairs at both ends, in which rooms were separated on both sides by partitions: a total of fifty rooms. In each room there is an iron bed, a chest of drawers, a desk, a mirror, a chair, a table for washing, together with a night room. On the desk is an inkwell and a candlestick with tongs.
In all floors and on the stairs there was lamp lighting; the two middle floors have parquet floors. In the hall there are wall-to-wall mirrors, damask furniture.
This was our housewarming party!
With all these conveniences, it was not difficult for us to get used to the new life. After the opening, the right classes began. Walk three times a day, in all weathers. In the evening in the hall - a ball and running around.
We got up at six o'clock. We dressed, went to prayer in the hall. We read the morning and evening prayers aloud in turn.
From 7 to 9 hours - class.
At 9 - tea; walk - up to 10.
From 10 to 12 - class.
From 12 to one - a walk.
At one o'clock is lunch.
From 2 to 3 - either calligraphy or drawing.
From 3 to 5 - class.
At 5 o'clock - tea; up to 6 - walk; then a repetition of lessons or an auxiliary class.
On Wednesdays and Saturdays - dancing or fencing.
Bath every Saturday.
At half past 9 o'clock, the call for supper.
After dinner until 10 o'clock - recreation.
At 10 - evening prayer, sleep.
Nightlights were placed in all arches in the corridor at night. The uncle on duty walked down the corridor with measured steps.
There are always fresh flowers in Pushkin's room now.
The library was located in the transition from the wing to the Catherine Palace, it had 5 thousand copies, at that time the number was simply huge. We tried to write out all the new items. The literary creativity of the lyceum students themselves flourished and was encouraged in every possible way. Several handwritten magazines were published.
“At the very beginning, he is our poet. As I now see that after-dinner class of Koshansky, when, having finished the lecture a little before the school hour, the professor said: “Now, gentlemen, we will try feathers: please describe the rose to me in verse.” Our poems did not stick at all, and Pushkin instantly read two quatrains, which delighted us all.
But he was practically not among the best students. No one will say where his place in the class was, because. Lyceum students moved along the rows depending on the current performance, and young Alexander often wandered from the first row to the last.
Pushchin writes touchingly about Pushkin: “In order to love him in a real way, you had to look at him with that complete goodwill that knows and sees all the unevenness of character and other shortcomings, puts up with them and ends up loving even them in a friend-comrade. . Between us somehow it quickly and imperceptibly settled down.
A.S. noted all his life. Pushkin’s lyceum anniversary, he has several poems with almost the same name “October 19”, but sometimes he had to celebrate alone, and then the lyceum students became less and less, some poems are no longer imbued with light sadness, but with real longing for the departed.
But this is forever
My friends, our union is beautiful:
He, like a soul, is inseparable and eternal,
Unshakable, free and carefree!
He grew together under the shadow of friendly muses.
Wherever fate takes us,
And happiness wherever it leads
We are all the same; the whole world is a foreign land for us,
Fatherland to us Tsarskoye Selo.
A huge, four-story wing of the palace, with all the buildings belonging to it, was allotted. This wing under Catherine was occupied by the Grand Duchesses: in 1811, only Anna Pavlovna remained unmarried. The lower floor housed the economic department and the apartments of the inspector, tutors and some other officials serving at the Lyceum; in the second - a dining room, a hospital with a pharmacy and a conference room with an office; in the third - a recreational hall, classrooms (two with chairs, one for students after lectures), a physical study, a room for newspapers and magazines, and a library in the arch connecting the Lyceum with the palace through the choirs of the court church. At the top are dormitories. For them, along the entire structure, arches were cut through in the internal transverse walls. Thus, a corridor with stairs at two ends was formed, in which rooms were separated on both sides by partitions: fifty rooms in all ... In each room there was an iron bed, a chest of drawers, a desk, a mirror, a chair, a washing table, and a night one. On the desk is an inkwell and a candlestick with tongs.
In all floors and on the stairs there was lamp lighting; the two middle floors have parquet floors. In the hall there are wall-to-wall mirrors, damask furniture ... With all these amenities, it was not difficult for us to get used to the new life. After the opening, the right classes began. Walk three times a day, in all weathers. In the evening in the hall - a ball and running around. We got up at six o'clock. We dressed, went to prayer in the hall. We read the morning and evening prayers aloud in turn. From 7 to 9 o'clock - class, at 9 - tea; walk - up to 10; from 10 to 12 - class; from 12 to one - a walk; at one o'clock - lunch; from 2 to 3 - either calligraphy or drawing; from 3 to 5 - class; at 5 o'clock - tea; up to 6 - walk; then a repetition of lessons or an auxiliary class. On Wednesdays and Saturdays - dancing or fencing. Bath every Saturday. At half past 9 o'clock, the call for dinner. After dinner until 10 o'clock - recreation. At 10 - evening prayer, sleep. Nightlights were placed in all arches in the corridor at night. The uncle on duty walked down the corridor with measured steps.
At first, the dress code was shy. On weekdays - blue frock coats with red collars and trousers of the same color: that would be nothing; but on the other hand, on holidays, a uniform (blue cloth with a red collar, embroidered buttonholes, silver in the first year, gold in the second), white trousers, a white waistcoat, a white tie, over the knee boots, a three-cornered hat - to church and to walks. They stayed in this outfit until dinner. This unnecessary form, the imprint of that time, was gradually destroyed: over the knee boots were thrown, white trousers and white waistcoats were replaced by blue trousers with waistcoats of the same color; the cap completely supplanted the hat, which we put on only when we were studying the front in the guards exemplary battalion. Linen was kept in order by a special housekeeper; in our time was m-me Skalon. Each had its own printed label: number and surname. Linen was changed on the body twice, and table linen and on the bed once a week.
Lunch consisted of three courses (four on holidays). Two at dinner. The food was good, but that didn't stop us from throwing pies into Zolotarev's sideburns from time to time. With morning tea - a grainy white bun, after evening - half a bun. In the dining room, on Mondays, a program of meals for the whole week was exhibited. Here the change was made in portions to taste<…>We had several uncles with us: they were in charge of cleaning dresses, boots and tidied up the rooms. Among them were Prokofiev, Catherine's sergeant, Polish gentry Leonty Kemersky, who became our home restaurant. He had a corner where you could find sweets, drink a cup of coffee and chocolate (even a glass of liquor - of course, smuggled) ...<…>
Our lyceum life merges with the political epoch of Russian folk life: the storm of 1812 was preparing. These events had a profound effect on our childhood. It began with the fact that we saw off all the guards regiments, because they were passing by the Lyceum itself; we were always there when they appeared, we went out even during classes, admonished the soldiers with heartfelt prayers, hugged our relatives and friends; mustachioed grenadiers from the ranks blessed us with a cross. Not one tear has been shed!<…>
Pushkin, from the very beginning, was more irritable than many and therefore did not arouse general sympathy: this is the lot of an eccentric being among people. Not that he played any role between us or struck with some special oddities, as it was in others; but sometimes, with inappropriate jokes, awkward barbs, he himself put himself in a difficult position, not being able to get out of it later. This led him to new slips, which never escape in school intercourse. I, as a neighbor (on the other side of his room there was a blank wall), often, when everyone was already asleep, talked to him in an undertone through the partition about some absurd incident of that day; here I saw clearly that, out of delicacy, he ascribed some importance to every nonsense, and this worried him. Together we, as best we could, smoothed out some of the roughness, although this was not always possible. He had a mixture of excessive courage and shyness, both of which were inappropriate, which thereby harmed him ... The main thing was that he lacked what is called tact, this is the capital necessary in a comradely life, where it is tricky, almost impossible, with completely unceremonious treatment , save yourself from some unpleasant collisions of everyday life. All this together was the reason why he did not suddenly respond to his affection for the lyceum circle, which from the first was born in him, without manifesting, however, its sometimes characteristic vulgarity. In order to love him in a real way, one had to look at him with that complete benevolence that knows and sees all the unevenness of character and other shortcomings, puts up with them and ends up loving even them in a friend-comrade. Between us somehow it quickly and imperceptibly settled down ...<…>
Our lyceum six years, historically and chronologically, can be distinguished by three epochs that sharply separate from each other: the directorship of Malinovsky, the interregnum (that is, the management of professors: they were replaced after each abnormal event) and the directorship of Engelhardt ...<…>At the very beginning, he is our poet. As I now see that after-dinner class of Koshansky, when, having finished the lecture a little before the school hour, the professor said: “Now, gentlemen, we will try feathers: please describe to me a rose in verse.” Our poems did not stick at all, and Pushkin instantly read two quatrains that delighted all of us. It is a pity that I cannot remember this first poetic babble of his. Koshansky took the manuscript with him. It was almost in 1811 ... Pushkin then constantly and actively participated in all the lyceum magazines, improvised the so-called folk songs, sharpened epigrams for everyone, and so on. Naturally, he was at the head of the literary movement, first within the walls of the Lyceum, then outside it, in some modern Moscow publications.<…>
Today I will tell you the story of the gogel-mogel, which has been preserved in the annals of the Lyceum. The prank took on a serious character and could have had a detrimental effect on both Pushkin and me, as you will see for yourself. We, that is, I, Malinovsky and Pushkin, started to drink gogel-mogel. I took out a bottle of rum, got eggs, poured sugar, and work began at the boiling samovar. Of course, besides us there were other participants in this evening feast, but they remained behind the scenes on business, and in fact one of them, namely Tyrkov, in whom the rum had too much effect, was the reason why the tutor on duty noticed some unusual revival, noise, running around. Told the inspector. He, after dinner, peered into his young team and saw something inflated. Immediately began interrogations, searches. We three came and announced that it was our business and that we alone were to blame. Professor Gauenschild, who was then reclaiming the post of director, reported to the minister. Razumovsky came from St. Petersburg, called us out of class and gave us a formal, severe reprimand. This did not end there, the matter went to the decision of the conference. The conference decided the following: 1) To kneel for two weeks during morning and evening prayers, 2) To remove us to the last places at the table where we sat according to behavior, and 3) To enter our names, with the prescription of guilt and sentence, in a black book , which should have an impact on release. The first paragraph of the sentence was carried out literally. The second was softened at the discretion of the authorities: after some time, we were gradually pushed up again. On this occasion, Pushkin said: “Blessed is the husband, ilk / Sits closer to the porridge.”
At this end of the table food was distributed by the tutor on duty. The third point, the most important, remained without any consequences. When, during the discussions of the conference about graduation, this black book was presented to Director Engelhardt, where only we were written down, he was horrified and began to prove to his fellow members that it was wise to admit that the old prank, for which he was then exacted, could still have influence and for the entire future after release. Everyone immediately agreed with his opinion, and the case was filed.
In general, this empty event (which, of course, could not be boasted of) then made a lot of noise and upset our relatives, thanks to the wise order of the authorities. Everything could have ended in domestic order if Gauenschild and Inspector Frolov had not taken it into their heads to inform the minister in a formal way ...
However, I must say: all the professors looked with reverence at the growing talent of Pushkin. In the math class, Kartsov called him up to the blackboard and gave him an algebraic problem. Pushkin shifted from foot to foot for a long time and silently wrote some formulas. Kartsev finally asked him: What happened? What is X equal to?“ Pushkin, smiling, replied: zero! „ Well! With you, Pushkin, in my class everything ends in zero. Sit down in your seat and write poetry“. Thanks also to Kartsev, that out of mathematical fanaticism he did not wage war with his poetry. Pushkin was more willing than all other classes to study in Kunitsyn's class, and then in a completely different way: he never repeated his lessons, wrote down little, and in order to rewrite the notebooks of professors (there were no printed manuals then), he did not have a custom; everything was done a livre ouvert(without preparation, from the sheet - ed.).
At our public examination, Derzhavin, with his sovereign blessing, crowned our young poet. All of us, his friends and comrades, were proud of this celebration. Pushkin then read his "Memoirs in Tsarskoye Selo". In these magnificent verses, everything living for the Russian heart is touched. Pushkin read with extraordinary animation. Listening to familiar verses, a chill ran through my skin. When the patriarch of our singers was delighted, with tears in his eyes, he rushed to kiss him and dawned on his curly head, we all, under some unknown influence, were reverently silent. They themselves wanted to hug our singer, he was not there: he ran away! ..
At the palace guardhouse, before the evening dawn, regimental music was usually played. This attracted the walkers in the garden, of course, and us, l'inevitable Lycee, as others called our noisy, moving crowd. Sometimes we went to the music through the palace corridor, into which, between other rooms, there was also an exit from the rooms occupied by the ladies-in-waiting of Empress Elizabeth Alekseevna. There were then three of these maids of honor: Plyuskova, Valueva and Princess Volkonskaya. Volkonskaya had a pretty little maid, Natasha. It happened, meeting with her in the dark passages of the corridor, and to be kind; she knew many of us, and who did not know the Lyceum, which was an eyesore to everyone in the garden?
One day we are walking along this corridor in small groups. Pushkin, unfortunately, was alone, he hears the rustle of a dress in the dark, imagines that Natasha will certainly rush to kiss her in the most innocent way. As if on purpose, at that moment the door from the room opens and illuminates the stage: in front of him is Princess Volkonskaya herself. What should he do? Run without looking back; but this is not enough; He immediately told me about it, joining us, standing at the orchestra. I advised him to open up to Engelhardt and ask for his protection. Pushkin did not agree to confide in the director and wanted to write an apology letter to the princess. Meanwhile, she managed to complain to her brother P. M. Volkonsky, and Volkonsky to the sovereign. The Emperor comes to Engelhardt the next day. “What will it be? the king says. “Your pupils not only remove my bulk apples through the fence, beat the guards of the gardener Lyamin, but now they no longer allow the passage of my wife’s ladies-in-waiting.” Engelhardt, in his own way, knew about Pushkin's embarrassing trick, perhaps from Pyotr Mikhailovich himself, who could tell him this that very evening. He was found and answered Emperor Alexander: You warned me, sir, I was looking for an opportunity to bring your Majesty a confession for Pushkin; he, poor man, is in despair: he came for my permission to ask the princess in writing to forgive him generously for this unintentional insult“. Here Engelhardt told the details of the case, trying in every possible way to soften Pushkin's punishment, and added that he had already given him a severe reprimand and was asking permission about the letter. To this petition of Engelhardt, the emperor said: Let him write, so be it, I take upon myself the defense of Pushkin; but tell him that this is the last time. La vieille est peut-être enchantée de la méprise du jeune homme, entre nous soit dit“ („The old maid, perhaps, is delighted with the young man's mistake, speaking between us“- approx. ed.), the emperor whispered, smiling, to Engelhardt. He shook hands with him and went to catch up with the empress, whom he saw from the window in the garden.
... We were all happy with such a denouement, pitying Pushkin and realizing very well that each of us could easily get into such trouble. For my part, I tried to prove to him that Engelhardt had acted excellently here: he was in no way aware of this, all the time assuring me that Engelhardt, in defending him, was defending himself. We argued a lot; for me it remained an unresolved mystery why all the attention of the director and his wife was rejected by Pushkin; he did not want to see him in his real light, avoiding any rapprochement with him. This injustice of Pushkin to Engelhardt, whom I loved with my soul, worried me greatly. There was something here that he did not want to tell me; finally I stopped insisting, giving all the time ...
It is impossible to convey to you all the details of our six-year existence in Tsarskoye Selo: it would be too complicated and cumbersome; here is a mixture of both efficient and empty. Meanwhile, all this diversity had its own charm for us. With the appointment of Engelhardt as director, our school life took on a different character: he lovingly set to work. Readings were arranged in the hall under him in the evenings (Engelhardt read excellently). In his house, we got acquainted with the customs of the society that awaited us at the threshold of the Lyceum, we found a pleasant female company. In the summer, during the vacant month, the director took long, sometimes two-day walks around the neighborhood with us; in winter, for fun, we went out of town in several troikas to have breakfast or drink tea on holidays; in the garden, on the pond, they rode down the mountains and on skates. All these amusements were attended by his family and the ladies and girls close to him, sometimes our relatives who came. Women's society gave all this a special charm and accustomed us to decency in address. In a word, our director understood that the forbidden fruit is a dangerous bait and that freedom, guided by experienced friendship, stops the young man from many mistakes. From our rapprochement with women's society, Platonism in feelings was born; this Platonism not only did not interfere with studies, but even gave strength to class work, whispering that success can please the subject of sighs ... "
The forest drops its crimson dress,
The withered field is silvered by frost,
The day will pass as if involuntarily
And hide behind the edge of the surrounding mountains.
Blaze, fireplace, in my deserted cell;
And you, wine, autumn cold friend,
Pour a pleasant hangover into my chest,
Minute oblivion of bitter torments.
I am sad: there is no friend with me,
With whom I would wash down a long parting,
Who could shake hands from the heart
And wish you many happy years.
I drink alone; vain imagination
Calls comrades around me;
The familiar approach is not heard,
And my dear soul does not wait.
I drink alone, and on the banks of the Neva
My friends are calling me...
But how many of you feast there too?
Who else have you missed?
Who changed the captivating habit?
Who from you was fascinated by the cold light?
Whose voice fell silent at the fraternal roll call?
Who didn't come? Who is not among you?
He did not come, our curly singer,
With fire in his eyes, with a sweet-voiced guitar:
Under the myrtle of beautiful Italy
He sleeps quietly, and a friendly cutter
Did not draw over the Russian grave
A few words in the native language,
So that once you find a sad hello
Son of the north, wandering in a foreign land.
Are you sitting with your friends
Is someone else's skies restless lover?
Or again you pass the sultry tropic
And the eternal ice of midnight seas?
Happy journey! .. From the lyceum threshold
You stepped onto the ship jokingly,
And since that time in the seas your road,
O waves and storms, beloved child!
You saved in a wandering fate
Beautiful years original morals:
Lyceum noise, lyceum fun
Amid the stormy waves dreamed of you;
You extended your hand to us from across the sea,
You carried us alone in a young soul
And he repeated: "For a long separation
We may have been condemned by secret fate!”
My friends, our union is beautiful!
He, like a soul, is inseparable and eternal -
Unshakable, free and carefree,
He grew together under the shadow of friendly muses.
Wherever fate takes us
And happiness wherever it leads
We are all the same: the whole world is a foreign land for us;
Fatherland to us Tsarskoye Selo.
From end to end we are pursued by a thunderstorm,
Entangled in the nets of a harsh fate,
With trepidation I enter the bosom of a new friendship,
The charter, stuck with a caressing head ...
With my sad and rebellious prayer,
With the trusting hope of the first years,
To other friends, he surrendered himself to a gentle soul;
But bitter was their non-brotherly greeting.
And now here, in this forgotten wilderness,
In the abode of desert blizzards and cold,
A sweet consolation was prepared for me:
Three of you, friends of my soul,
I hugged here. Poet's disgraced house,
Oh my Pushchin, you were the first to visit;
You delighted the sad day of exile,
You turned his Lyceum into a day.
You, Gorchakov, are lucky from the first days,
Praise to you - fortune shine cold
Didn't change your free soul:
You are the same for honor and friends.
We are assigned a different path by strict fate;
Stepping into life, we quickly dispersed:
But by chance a country road
We met and fraternally embraced.
When fate befell me with anger,
For all a stranger, like a homeless orphan,
Under the storm I drooped head languid
And I was waiting for you, prophet of Permesian maidens,
And you came, inspired son of laziness,
Oh my Delvig: your voice awakened
Heart heat, so long lulled,
And cheerfully I blessed fate.
From infancy, the spirit of songs burned in us,
And we knew a wondrous excitement;
From infancy, two muses flew to us,
And our lot was sweet with their caress:
But I already loved applause,
You, proud, sang for the muses and for the soul;
My gift, like life, I spent without attention,
You brought up your genius in silence.
The service of the Muses does not tolerate fuss;
Beautiful must be majestic:
But youth advises us slyly,
And noisy dreams delight us ...
We will come to our senses - but it's too late! and sadly
We look back, not seeing any traces there.
Tell me, Wilhelm, was it not so with us,
My own brother by muse, by fate?
It's time, it's time! our mental anguish
The world is not worth it; Let's leave the confusion!
Let's hide life under the canopy of solitude!
I'm waiting for you, my belated friend -
Come; the fire of a fairy tale
Revive heartfelt legends;
Let's talk about the stormy days of the Caucasus,
About Schiller, about fame, about love.
It's time for me too ... feast, O friends!
I foresee a pleasant rendezvous;
Remember the poet's prediction:
The year will fly by, and I'm with you again,
The covenant of my dreams will be fulfilled;
A year will pass, and I will come to you!
Oh, how many tears and how many exclamations,
And how many bowls raised to heaven!
And the first is fuller, friends, fuller!
And all to the bottom in honor of our union!
Bless, jubilant muse,
Bless: long live the Lyceum!
To the mentors who guarded our youth,
To all honor, both dead and alive,
Raising a cup of gratitude to your lips,
Remembering no evil, we will reward for the good.
Full, full! and with a burning heart,
Again, to the bottom, drink to the drop!
But for whom? other than that, guess...
Hooray, our king! So! let's drink to the king.
He is a human! they are dominated by the moment.
He is a slave of rumors, doubts and passions;
Forgive him the wrong persecution:
He took Paris, he founded the Lyceum.
Eat while we're still here!
Alas, our circle thins hour by hour;
Who sleeps in a coffin, who is a distant orphan;
Fate looks, we wither; the days are running;
Invisibly bowing and growing cold,
We are nearing the beginning of our...
Which one of us is the day of the Lyceum in old age
Will you have to celebrate alone?
Unfortunate friend! among new generations
Annoying guest and superfluous, and a stranger,
He will remember us and the days of connections,
Closing your eyes with a trembling hand...
Let him with joy, even sad
Then this day will spend a cup,
As I am now, your disgraced recluse,
He spent it without grief and worries.
The lyceum was created according to the project of M. M. Speransky "for the preparation of youth destined for the higher parts of the state service." According to the original project, it was assumed that "young people of different conditions" would study here. In fact, the Lyceum turned out to be a belated brainchild of the “beautiful beginning” of the reign of Alexander I. Speransky was already exiled in 1812, the state task assigned to the new educational institution was forgotten, and the pupils turned out to be children from low-income noble families, whose fathers used all kinds of patronage for the device them to this privileged educational institution (on the Lyceum and lyceum education, see: B. S. Meilakh. Pushkin and his era. M., Goslitizdat, 1958, pp. 9-172).
Pushkin's poetic talent was already noted in 1813. On September 12, 1813, tutor Chirikov, in a statement about the "properties" of pupils, writes about Pushkin: "has a special passion for poetry" (B. V. Tomashevsky. Pushkin, book I. M. - L., Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1956, p. 29). However, apparently, at first the comrades assigned the first place in poetry not to Pushkin, but to Illichevsky. He is glorified by the enthusiastic “Choir on the occasion of the birth of our venerable poet Alexander Demianovich Illichevsky” composed by lyceum students (K. Ya. Grot. Pushkin Lyceum. St. Petersburg, 1911, p. 33). The fact that the “mediocre” poems of Illichevsky, “noticeable only by a certain lightness and purity of fine finish ... were praised and glorified as a“ miracle ”, Pushkin later recalled (XI, 274). Before others, Delvig appreciated Pushkin's talent, who in 1815 published a panegyric message “To Pushkin” (“Who is like a swan of blooming Auzonia ...”).
Of the numerous handwritten journals published at the Lyceum since 1811, only a few issues or fragments of issues and verbal reports by M. L. Yakovlev, M. A. Korf and F. F. Matyushkin have come down to us. See about them: K. Ya. Grotto. Pushkin Lyceum, p. 240-319; B. V. Tomashevsky. Pushkin, book. I, p. 705-718.
This refers to the "national songs" popular in the lyceum environment - the fruit of collective creativity, couplets for teachers and comrades, sung in chorus (published in the book: K. Ya. Grot. Pushkin Lyceum, pp. 215-239). Their performance was part of the ritual of celebrating lyceum "anniversaries". See protocols of "anniversaries" written by Pushkin and M.L. Yakovlev (K.Ya. Grotto. Celebration of lyceum anniversaries under Pushkin and after him. - PiS, issue XIII, pp. 38-89).
The story of Gogel-Mogel happened on September 5, 1814. The Lyceum Sage magazine (1815, No. 3) responded to this incident with a “Letter to the Publisher”, written on the assumption of K. Ya. Grot, I. I. Pushchin (K. Ya Grotto, Pushkin Lyceum, p. 291).
"Memoirs in Tsarskoe Selo" in the presence of Derzhavin Pushkin read at a public exam on January 8, 1815. He described this only meeting with Derzhavin in an excerpt from 1835 "Derzhavin" (XII, 158), which was obviously intended for the unrealized "Notes" (see: I. L. Feinberg. Pushkin’s unfinished works. M., “Sov. Writer”, pp. 361-364), and mentioned her twice - in the message “To Zhukovsky” (1816) and in “Eugene Onegin "(Chapter VIII, stanza II). For the first time in the press, S. L. Pushkin spoke about Derzhavin’s “blessing” in his “Remarks on the so-called biography of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, placed in the Portrait and Biographic Gallery”: Imperial Lyceum, read not "Unbelief", but "Memories of Tsarskoye Selo", in the presence of G. R. Derzhavin, a play subsequently published in "Exemplary Works". The immortal singer of the immortal Catherine then thanked my son and blessed him with a poet ... I will not forget that at the dinner to which I was invited by Count A.K. I would like, however, to educate your son to prose. “Leave him a poet,” Derzhavin answered him for me with fervor, inspired by the spirit of prophecy” (OZ, 1841, vol. XV, p. II of the Special App.).
Printed in Northern Flowers for 1827, with all names replaced by asterisks (see letter to Benckendorff dated March 22, 1827). In addition, according to censorship conditions, eight verses were omitted, starting with “Full, full! and with a burning heart."
If Pushkin is our everything, then the poet himself, if not everything, but a lot, was given by his alma mater - the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum. And not only for him - for the whole of Russia the lyceum has become a beacon of education, the cradle of a whole generation of educated and free-thinking people.
Like in Europe
Despite all the efforts of the authorities and society since the Peter I, at the beginning of the 19th century, things with education in Russia were not very good. Only 20% of the population could read and write skillfully, and even among the nobles there were those who could hardly print their own name on paper. Throughout the vast empire there were 550 schools - fewer than in Germany - and one university, Moscow, to which four more were added at the beginning of the century. This was the merit of the emperor Alexander I and his adviser, the famous reformer Mikhail Speransky. Through their efforts, the Ministry of Public Education was created (in 1802) and a regulation was adopted according to which schools were created in every city and village, and gymnasiums in provincial centers.
Aristocrats, according to tradition, hired foreign teachers for their children or sent them to study abroad. However, in conditions when almost all of Europe, under the banner of the European Union, that is, the Napoleonic Empire, opposed Russia, this began to be considered unpatriotic. There was a need for their own elite school for the nobility, which provides education no worse than in Europe. We decided to take an example from the same Napoleon, who created in France a network of lyceums - higher schools, where they taught not only the humanities, but also the natural sciences, and at public expense.
True, the French emperor ordered to accept people of “every rank” into his lyceums, and the Russian - exclusively nobles. But he allowed the first lyceum to be arranged in his own palace; more precisely, in the palace complex of Tsarskoye Selo, where his illustrious grandmother lived Catherine II and where he spent his childhood in the Alexander Palace. Under the lyceum they gave a four-story wing of another palace - the Catherine Palace, in which the daughters used to live Paul I. The situation obligated: lyceum students had to grow up under the vigilant supervision of the authorities.
Class
The word "lyceum" comes from a grove Apollo of Lyceum(Wolf) in Athens, where he once founded his school Aristotle. Education in the Athens lyceum cost a lot of money, but in Tsarskoye Selo it was free, however, only those children from 10 to 12 years old who showed “exemplary success and diligence” were admitted to it. They had to study for six years, receiving a de facto university education. For the first three years, the lyceum students took the program of the senior classes of the gymnasium: ancient and modern languages, mathematics, history, geography, the Law of God. Next came the university program: the same mathematics with the basics of physics, literature and "moral and political sciences." Dances, fencing, horseback riding, obligatory for the nobles, were not forgotten either. Like the disciples of Aristotle - peripatetics, which means "walking", lyceum students had to communicate with nature, walking in the vast parks of Tsarskoye Selo. Embodying the ancient maxim "a healthy mind in a healthy body", they were taught gymnastics and swimming, music and drawing. It is worth saying that the lyceum became the first educational institution in Russia free from corporal punishment.
The project of the lyceum was made by the same Mikhail Speransky. He wanted to raise educated officials in him, capable of realizing his reform projects. He also recommended Vasily Malinovsky, a diplomat, translator, admirer of ideas, for the post of director. Jean Jacques Rousseau and Immanuel Kant. He invited teachers, especially young ones: a lawyer Alexandra Kunitsyna, mathematics Yakova Kartsova, Latinist Nicholas Koshansky. However, among those invited were gray-haired veterans, for example, a teacher of French David de Boudry- brother of a revolutionary Marat who changed his surname so as not to have anything to do with him. He was the strictest of all behaved with students and the only one who could force them to study. Others were too liberal and behaved with them, rather, in a comradely manner, especially the teacher of Russian literature Alexander Galich(A well-known dissident bard later took the pseudonym in his honor). Pushkin, who loved him most of all, in verse addressed him "my good Galich."
However, the main favorite of the lyceum students was 27-year-old Alexander Kunitsyn, who had the honor of delivering a welcoming speech at the opening of the lyceum on October 19, 1811. In a famous poem dedicated to this event, the poet wrote:
Kunitsyn the gift of heart and wine:
He created us, he raised our fire;
They set the cornerstone
They light a clean lamp.
As you can see, all of the above are Masonic terms, and this is no coincidence: according to persistent rumors, Kunitsyn (like Malinovsky) belonged to the "free masons". In his speech, he transparently hinted that those in power, including the king himself, must abide by their own laws and serve the people. The times were liberal, and these words did not embarrass Alexander I and his family who attended the ceremony. However, dissatisfied were found even then: the chief procurator of the Synod, Prince Alexander Golitsyn called the newborn lyceum a hotbed of "French contagion" - freethinking. Later, when he became the Minister of Public Education, Golitsyn first of all defeated the "hotbed", dismissing many teachers, including Kunitsyn. Even earlier, the lyceum lost Malinovsky, who briefly survived his beloved wife. After him, a prominent teacher became the director Egor Engelhardt. He saw off the first graduates, handing them cast-iron rings as a keepsake - a sign of true friendship (after that they called themselves "cast-iron workers" for a long time).
Among the first 30 lyceum students there were very different people who were united by one thing: their parents filed applications on time for their children to study. To the chagrin of Speransky, the wealthy aristocrats did not show much interest in the new educational institution; this reduced not only his prestige, but also his financial possibilities. As a result, most of the lyceum students turned out to be the sons of poor nobles, including Alexander Pushkin, the son of a middle-class Pskov landowner. Almost half of them were Germans, Poles, French: the future dignitary Modest Korf, the future second of Pushkin in the fatal duel Konstantin Danzas or Silverius de Broglio, a descendant of the French dukes, "the last in learning, but the first in pranks." Just one man, nephew of the finance minister Konstantin Guryev, were expelled (allegedly for stealing from their comrades), others graduated from the Lyceum and most of them made a good career. Although how to say: the most famous today - after Pushkin - lyceum students Ivan Pushchin and Wilhelm Küchelbecker spent half their lives in hard labor. Disappeared "in the depths of Siberian ores" and Alexey Illichevsky, who in the Lyceum was considered a poet stronger than Pushkin.
Which one of us is the day of the Lyceum in old age
Will you have to celebrate alone?
Asked by Alexander Sergeevich. He did not yet know that it would be a wit and fashionista Alexander Gorchakov, long-term Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia (he died in 1883). Most of the lyceum students were barely over fifty, and the pretty lazy Nikolai Rzhevsky died at the age of 17 - from "nervous fever". Not only Pushkin - many of them remembered the lyceum as the best page in their lives and tried to embody in their activities what they had been taught there.
Ilya Repin. Pushkin at the lyceum exam
Soon after the start of studies, the lyceum, together with all of Russia, had to endure the Patriotic War of 1812. Of course, there were no military operations in Tsarskoye Selo, although the general confusion touched him too - classes were continually disrupted, and the promised funding was delayed. Lyceum students lived quite modestly: in their rooms measuring 2 by 4 meters there was a narrow iron bed, a chest of drawers, a chair and a washbasin. There was no longer enough space for a table, so the lessons were done standing up, at the desk. "Uncle" woke up the students at six in the morning, and classes began at seven. At nine - a light breakfast and a walk, then again classes. At noon - a new walk and a three-course dinner, a list of which was posted in the dining room. Menu of one of the days: pearl barley soup with veal, roast chicken and soft-boiled eggs. After lunch, classes continued for another three hours, then the second time they walked, did gymnastics, and in inclement weather they painted or played music under the supervision of teachers. We studied no more than seven hours a day, which was monitored by the leadership. The sick were sent to the hospital, to the doctor Franz Peschel. Many aspired to go there, including because the doctor “for strengthening” poured half a glass of red wine a day to young patients. Otherwise, alcohol was strictly prohibited in the lyceum: the well-known attempt by Pushkin and his friends to drink the “gogel-mogel” they brewed on their own almost ended in an exception.
Studying was not limited to classes: teachers encouraged the reading of any, albeit ideologically dubious, literature. Modest Korf recalled: "We learned little in classes, but a lot in reading and in conversation with the constant friction of minds." In addition to the initially small lyceum library, students took books from teachers, ordered them from St. Petersburg and even from abroad. Acquaintance with literature was also personal: they came to the lyceum Gavrila Derzhavin, Vasily Zhukovsky, Konstantin Batyushkov and other fashionable writers, including Pushkin's uncle Vasily. Everyone knows about the memorable visit of Gavrila Derzhavin to the exams in 1815. Arriving, the deaf poet loudly asked the footman where the toilet was, and then he praised the one who read Pushkin's poems to him, declaring him his "winning student."
Poetry was encouraged at the Lyceum: Professor of Literature Koshansky at the lessons he suggested that everyone write poems on a given topic. Gathering in their cells, the lyceum students told all sorts of stories, read their own and other people's poems, argued and joked. A custom arose to write down what was said, handwritten journals were composed, and from 1814 the works of students began to appear in print, albeit under pseudonyms. Pushkin's first poem, "To a Poetic Friend," was published in Vestnik Evropy this year with the anagram signature "N.K.Sh.P." He was inspired to lyceum poems not only by what he read, but also by what he saw - relations with comrades and teachers, not always smooth. Pushchin noted in his notes: “From the very beginning, Pushkin was more irritable than many and therefore did not arouse general sympathy. He sometimes, with inappropriate jokes, awkward barbs, put himself in a difficult position, did not know how to get out of it later ... Warped by home education ... he was, of course, a difficult person both for others and for himself.
Nevertheless, the poet retained the brightest memories of the Lyceum - also because he experienced his first love here. It was a lady-in-waiting Ekaterina Bakunina, who often visited her brother-lyceum student. Pushkin dedicated poems to her, although he courted others: the young countess Natalya Kochubey, French widow Maria Smith, serf actress Natalya ... Often a young man in love left the lyceum without permission, which was forbidden by the rules, and received penalties for this. However, this did not affect the result - in June 1817, all lyceum students received certificates of graduation and set off on an independent voyage through life. And their alma mater continued to work - many more outstanding people graduated from it, including the writer Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin. However, times have changed, especially after the Decembrist uprising, in which several graduates of the Lyceum took part. New king Nicholas I, visiting the "hotbed of free-thinking", was dissatisfied. To begin with, he ordered the boarding school at the lyceum to be closed, and in 1831 all education there was transferred to a military way.
After that, the glory of the educational institution faded, and in 1843 the lyceum moved to St. Petersburg, receiving the name of Aleksandrovsky. Retired dignitaries settled in the deserted Tsarskoye Selo building. After the revolution, the Alexander Lyceum was closed, but the palace complex in Tsarskoye Selo (renamed Detskoye Selo, and then Pushkin) was turned into a museum. Revived after the destruction of the war, the former lyceum became an integral part of the Pushkin State Museum. The interiors of Pushkin's era have been restored here, and hundreds of thousands of tourists visiting the museum can personally appreciate the veracity of the poet's lines:
Wherever fate takes us,
And happiness wherever it leads
We are all the same: the whole world is a foreign land for us;
Fatherland to us Tsarskoye Selo.
Vadim Erlikhman