Andrey Bely (Boris Nikolaevich Bugaev). Curriculum Vitae. Secrets of history What is the real name of the writer Andrei Bely
Like many other contemporary Russian writers, Andrei Bely became famous under a pseudonym. His real name is Boris Nikolaevich Bugaev. [Cm. See also the article Andrei Bely - Life and Works.] He was born in Moscow in 1880 - the same year as Blok. His father, Professor Bugaev (Professor Letaev in the writings of his son), was an outstanding mathematician, a correspondent for Weierstrass and Poincaré, and the dean of the faculty of Moscow University. His son inherited from him an interest in the most difficult mathematical problems to understand.
He studied at the private gymnasium of L. I. Polivanov, one of the best teachers in Russia at that time, who inspired him with a deep interest in Russian poets. In his youth, Bely met with the great philosopher Vladimir Solovyov and early became an expert on his mystical teachings. Bely became close to Solovyov's nephew, the poet Sergei. Both of them were imbued with an ecstatic expectation of the apocalypse, quite realistically and concretely believed that the first years of the new, 20th century, would bring a new revelation - the revelation of the Female Hypostasis, Sophia, and that her coming would completely change and transform life. These expectations were further strengthened when friends learned about the visions and poetry of Blok.
Poets of Russia XX century. Andrey Bely
At this time, Andrei Bely studied at Moscow University, which took him eight years: he received a diploma in philosophy and mathematics. Despite his brilliant abilities, the professors looked askance at him because of his "decadent" writings - some did not even shake hands with him at his father's funeral. The first of the "decadent" scriptures (prosaic) appeared in 1902 under the annoying title Symphony (Second dramatic). Several exceptionally subtle critics (M.S.Soloviev - Sergei's father, Bryusov and Merezhkovsky with Gippius) immediately recognized something completely new and promising here. This almost mature work gives a complete picture of both Bely's humor and his amazing gift - to write musically organized prose. But critics reacted to this "symphony" and to what followed it with indignation and malice, and for several years Bely replaced Bryusov (who was beginning to be recognized) as the main target of attacks on the "decadents." He has been called an obscene clown whose antics desecrate a sacred area of literature. The attitude of criticism is understandable: in almost all of Bely's works there is undoubtedly an element of tomfoolery. Per Second Symphony followed The first (Northern, heroic, 1904), The third (Return, 1905) and Fourth (Blizzard Cup, 1908), as well as a collection of poems Gold in azure(1904) - and everyone received the same welcome.
In 1905, Bely (like most of the Symbolists) was captured by a wave revolution, which he tried to combine with Soloviev's mysticism. But the degeneration of the revolution into criminal anarchy caused depression in Bely, as in Blok, and he lost faith in his mystical ideals. The depression poured out in two collections of poetry that appeared in 1909: realistic - Ash where he picks up the Nekrasov tradition, and Urn where he talks about his wanderings in the abstract desert neo-Kantian metaphysics. But Bely's despair is devoid of Blok's gloomy and tragic bitterness, and the reader inevitably does not take him so seriously, especially since Bely himself constantly distracts him with his humorous curbets.
All this time, Bely wrote prose volume after volume: he wrote brilliant but fantastic and impressionistic critical articles in which he explained writers from the point of view of his mystical symbolism; wrote expositions of his metaphysical theories. He was highly regarded by the Symbolists, but he was hardly known to the general public. In 1909 he published his first novel - Silver dove... This remarkable work, which was soon to have a huge impact on Russian prose, went almost unnoticed at first. In 1910, Bely read a number of reports at the St. Petersburg "Poetic Academy" on Russian prosody - the date from which the very existence of Russian prosody as a branch of science can be counted.
In 1911 he married a girl who bore the poetic name Asya Turgenev and was indeed a relative of the famous writer. The following year, the young couple met the famous German "anthroposophist" Rudolf Steiner... Steiner's "anthroposophy" is a crudely concretized and detailed treatment of the symbolist worldview, which considers the human microcosm to be parallel in every detail to the universal macrocosm. Bely and his wife were mesmerized by Steiner and lived for four years in his magical institution in Dornach, near Basel ("Goetheanum"). They took part in the construction of the Johannium, which was to be built only by Steiner's followers, without the intervention of the unenlightened, i.e. professional builders. During this time, Bely published his second novel Petersburg(1913) and wrote Kotika Letaeva which was published in 1917. When it erupted The first World War , he took a pacifist stance. In 1916 he had to return to Russia for military service. But the revolution saved him from being sent to the front. Like Blok, he fell under the influence Ivanov-Razumnik and his " Scythian"Revolutionary messianism. Bolsheviks Bely hailed as a liberating and destructive storm, which will deal with the decrepit "humanistic" European civilization. In his (very weak) poem Christ is risen(1918) he, even more insistently than Blok, equates Bolshevism with Christianity.
Like Blok, Bely very soon lost faith in this identity, but, unlike Blok, he did not fall into dismal prostration. On the contrary, it was precisely in the worst years of Bolshevism (1918-1921) that he developed a stormy activity inspired by faith in the great mystical revival of Russia, growing in spite of the Bolsheviks. It seemed to him that a new "culture of eternity" was emerging in Russia before his eyes, which would replace the humanistic civilization of Europe. Indeed, in these terrible years of hunger, hardship and terror in Russia there was an amazing flowering of mystical and spiritualistic creativity. White became the center of this fermentation. He founded Wolfila (Free Philosophical Association), where the most burning problems of mystical metaphysics in their practical aspect were discussed freely, sincerely and in an original way. He published Dreamer's Notes(1919-1922), a non-periodical magazine, a mixture that contains almost all the best that has been published in these difficult two years. He taught versification to proletarian poets and lectured with incredible energy almost every day.
During this period, in addition to many small works, he wrote Eccentric notes, The crime of Nikolai Letaev(continuation Kotika Letaeva), great poem First date and Memories of Blok... Together with Blok and Gorky (who then did not write anything and therefore did not count) he was the largest figure in Russian literature - and much more influential than those two. When the book trade was revived (1922), the first thing publishers did was print Bely. In the same year he left for Berlin, where he became the same center among emigrant writers as he was in Russia. But his ecstatic, restless spirit did not allow him to remain abroad. In 1923, Andrei Bely returned to Russia, for only there he felt contact with the messianic revival of Russian culture that he was eagerly awaiting.
Portrait of Andrey Bely. Artist K. Petrov-Vodkin, 1932
However, all his attempts to establish a lively contact with Soviet culture were hopeless. The communist ideologists did not recognize Andrei Bely. Back in Berlin, he broke up with Asya Turgeneva, and upon returning to the USSR he cohabited with Anna Vasilyeva, whom he officially married in 1931. She has a writer in her arms and died on January 8, 1934 in Moscow after several strokes.
Real name and surname - Boris Nikolaevich Bugaev.
Andrey Bely - Russian poet, prose writer, theorist of symbolism, critic, memoirist - was born 14 (26) October 1880 in Moscow in the family of the mathematician N.V. Bugaev, who in 1886-1891 - Dean of the Physics and Mathematics Faculty of Moscow University, the founder of the Moscow Mathematical School, anticipating many of the ideas of K. Tsiolkovsky and Russian "cosmists". The mother studied music and tried to oppose the artistic influence to her father's “flat rationalism”. The essence of this parental conflict was constantly reproduced by Bely in his later works.
At the age of 15 he met the family of his brother Vl.S. Solovyova - M.S. Soloviev, his wife, artist O.M. Solovieva, and her son, future poet S.M. Soloviev. Their house became the second family for A. Bely, here he sympathetically greeted his first literary experiments, invented a pseudonym, introduced him to the latest art and philosophy (A. Schopenhauer, F. Nietzsche, Vl.S. Soloviev). In 1891-1899 Bely studied at the Moscow private gymnasium of L.I. Polivanova. In 1903 he graduated from the natural sciences department of the physics and mathematics faculty of Moscow University. In 1904 entered the Faculty of History and Philology, however in 1906 applied for expulsion.
In 1901 Bely put in print "Symphony (2nd, dramatic)". The genre of literary "symphony," created by A. Bely (during his lifetime, the "Northern Symphony (1st, heroic)" ( 1904 ), "Return" ( 1905 ), "Cup of Blizzards" ( 1908 )), demonstrated a number of essential features of his poetics: a gravitation towards the synthesis of words and music (a system of leitmotifs, rhythmization of prose, transfer of the structural laws of musical form into verbal compositions), a combination of the plans of eternity and modernity.
In 1901-1903... was a member of the Moscow Symbolists grouping around the Scorpion publishing house (V. Bryusov, K. Balmont, Y. Baltrushaitis) and Grif; then he met the organizers of the St. Petersburg Religious and Philosophical Assemblies and the publishers of the magazine "New Way" D.S. Merezhkovsky, Z.N. Gippius. Since January 1903 began a correspondence with A. Blok (personal acquaintance took place 1904 g.), with whom he was tied for years of "friendship-enmity". Autumn 1903 Andrey Bely became one of the organizers and ideological inspirers of the "Argonauts" circle (Ellis, S.M. Soloviev, A.S. Petrovsky, E.K. equality of "texts of life" and "texts of art", love-mystery as a path to the eschatological transformation of the world. "Argonautical" motives developed in Bely's articles of this period, published in the magazines "World of Art", "Libra", "Golden Fleece", as well as in the collection of poems "Gold in Azure" ( 1904 ).
The collapse of the "Argonautic" myth in the minds of Andrei Bely ( 1904-1906 ) occurred under the influence of a number of factors: the shift of philosophical guidelines from the eschatology of F. Nietzsche and Vl.S. Solovyov to neo-Kantianism and the problems of the epistemological substantiation of symbolism, the tragic vicissitudes of unrequited love for L.D. Block (reflected in the collection "Urn", 1909 ), schism and fierce journalistic polemics in the Symbolist camp. Events of the Revolution 1905-1907 biennium were initially perceived by Bely in the mainstream of anarchist maximalism, but it was during this period that social motives and "Nekrasov" rhythms and intonations appeared in his poetry (collection of poems "Ashes", 1909 ).
1909-1910... - the beginning of a turning point in the attitude of A. Bely, the search for new positive life paths... Summing up the previous creative activity, published three volumes of critical and theoretical articles ("Symbolism", "Green Meadow", both 1910 ; "Arabesque" 1911 ). Attempts to find a "new soil", a synthesis of the West and the East are tangible in the novel "The Silver Dove" ( 1909 ). The beginning of the revival was the rapprochement and civil marriage with the artist A.A. Turgeneva, who shared years of wandering with him ( 1910-1912 , Sicily - Tunisia - Egypt - Palestine), described in two volumes of "Travel Notes". Together with her, Andrei Bely experienced years of enthusiastic apprenticeship with the creator of anthroposophy, R. Steiner. The highest creative achievement of this period was the novel Petersburg ( 1913-1914 ), which concentrated in itself the historiosophical problems associated with the comprehension of the path of Russia between the West and the East, and had a tremendous influence on the greatest novelists of the 20th century (M. Proust, J. Joyce, etc.).
In 1914-1916... lived in Dornach (Switzerland), participating in the construction of the anthroposophical temple "Goetheanum". In August 1916 returned to Russia. V 1915-1916 biennium... created the novel "Kitty Letaev" - the first in the planned series of autobiographical novels (continued - the novel "The Baptized Chinese", 1921 ). Bely perceived the beginning of the First World War as a universal human disaster, the Russian revolution. 1917 - as a possible way out of the global catastrophe. The cultural-philosophical ideas of this time were embodied in the essay cycle "At the Pass" ("I. Crisis of Thought", 1918 ; “II. Crisis of Thought " 1918 ; "III. Crisis of culture ", 1918 ), the essay "Revolution and Culture" ( 1917 ), the poem "Christ is Risen" ( 1918 ), a collection of poems "Star" ( 1922 ).
In 1921-1923... Andrei Bely in Berlin experienced a painful parting with R. Steiner, a break with A.A. Turgeneva and found himself on the verge of a mental breakdown, although he continued his active literary activity. Upon returning to his homeland, he undertook a series of hopeless attempts to find his place in Soviet culture, created a novel dilogy "Moscow" ("Moscow eccentric", 1926 ; "Moscow is under attack" 1926 ), the novel "Masks" ( 1932 ), acted as a memoirist ("Memories of Blok", 1922-1923 ; trilogy "At the turn of two centuries", 1930 ; "The beginning of the century" 1933 ; "Between two revolutions" 1934 ), wrote theoretical and literary research "Rhythm as a dialectic and" The Bronze Horseman "" ( 1929 ) and "The Mastery of Gogol" ( 1934 ). These studies have had a largely decisive influence on literary criticism of the 20th century. (formalist and structuralist schools in the USSR, "new criticism" in the USA) laid the foundations of modern scientific poetry (the distinction between meter and rhythm, etc.). A feeling of a total crisis of life and world order was expressed in the work of Andrei Bely.
Andrei Bely (real name Boris Nikolaevich Bugaev) - Russian writer, poet, critic, memoirist, poetry critic; one of the leading figures of Russian symbolism and modernism in general.
Born into the family of the mathematician Nikolai Vasilievich Bugaev, dean of the Physics and Mathematics Faculty of Moscow University, and his wife Alexandra Dmitrievna, nee Egorova. Until the age of twenty-six he lived in the very center of Moscow, on the Arbat; in the apartment where he spent his childhood and adolescence, there is currently a memorial apartment. Bugaev Sr. had wide acquaintances among the representatives of the old Moscow professors; visited the house.
In 1891-1899. Boris Bugaev graduated from the famous Moscow gymnasium of L.I. Polivanov, where in the last grades he became interested in Buddhism, occultism, while studying literature. At that time, Boris was especially influenced by. Here he developed an interest in poetry, especially in French and Russian symbolists (,). In 1895 he became close to Sergei Solovyov and his parents - Mikhail Sergeevich and Olga Mikhailovna, and soon with Mikhail Sergeevich's brother - the philosopher Vladimir Solovyov.
In 1899, at the insistence of his father, he entered the natural sciences department of the Physics and Mathematics Faculty of Moscow University. From his youthful years he tried to combine artistic and mystical moods with positivism, with a striving for the exact sciences. At the university he works on the zoology of invertebrates, studies the works of Darwin, chemistry, but does not miss a single issue of the "World of Art". In the fall of 1899, Boris, as he put it, "gives himself entirely to the phrase, the syllable."
In December 1901, Bely met the "senior symbolists" - Bryusov, Merezhkovsky and. In the fall of 1903, a literary circle was organized around Andrei Bely, which received the name "Argonauts". In 1904, the "Argonauts" gathered at Astrov's apartment. At one of the meetings of the circle, it was proposed to publish a literary and philosophical collection called "Free Conscience", and in 1906 two books of this collection were published.
In 1903, Bely entered into a correspondence with, and a year later their personal acquaintance took place. Prior to that, in 1903, he graduated with honors from the university. Since the foundation of the Vesy magazine in January 1904, Andrei Bely began to work closely with him. In the fall of 1904, he entered the Faculty of History and Philology of Moscow University, electing BA Fokht as his leader; however, in 1905 he stopped attending classes, in 1906 he applied for expulsion and began to engage exclusively in literary work.
After a painful break with Blok and his wife Lyubov Mendeleeva, Bely lived abroad for six months. In 1909 he became one of the co-founders of the Musaget publishing house. In 1911 he made a series of travels through Sicily - Tunisia - Egypt - Palestine (described in the "Travel Notes"). In 1910, Bugaev, relying on his knowledge of mathematical methods, read lectures on prosody to novice poets - according to D. Mirsky, "the date from which the very existence of Russian poetry as a branch of science can be counted."
Since 1912 he edited the journal Trudy i Dnya, the main topic of which was theoretical questions of the aesthetics of Symbolism. In 1912 in Berlin, he met Rudolf Steiner, became his student and without looking back gave himself up to his apprenticeship and anthroposophy. In fact, having moved away from the previous circle of writers, he worked on prose. When the war of 1914 broke out, Steiner and his students, including Andrei Bely, were in Dornach, Switzerland, where the construction of the Goetheanum began. This temple was built by the own hands of the students and followers of Steiner. Before the outbreak of the First World War, A. Bely visited the grave of Friedrich Nietzsche in the village of Röcken near Leipzig and Cape Arkona on the island of Rügen.
In 1916, Andrei Bely was summoned to Russia "to check his attitude to military service" and arrived in Russia by a roundabout route through France, England, Norway and Sweden. The wife did not follow him. After the October Revolution, he taught the theory of poetry and prose in the Moscow Proletkult among young proletarian writers.
From the end of 1919, Bely thought about returning to his wife in Dornach, he was released abroad only at the beginning of September 1921. From his explanation with Asya, it became clear that the continuation of a joint family life was impossible. Vladislav Khodasevich and other memoirists remembered his broken, clownish behavior, “dancing” the tragedy in Berlin bars: “his foxtrot is the purest whiplash: not even a whistle dance, but a Christ-dance” (Tsvetaeva).
In October 1923, Bely unexpectedly returned to Moscow for his friend Klavdia Vasilyeva. "Bely is a dead man, and in no spirit will he rise again," wrote the all-powerful Leon Trotsky in Pravda. In March 1925 he rented two rooms in Kuchin near Moscow. The writer died in the arms of his wife Klavdia Nikolaevna on January 8, 1934 from a stroke - investigation sunstroke that happened to him in Koktebel. This fate was predicted by him in the collection "Ashes":
I believed in the golden shine,
And he died from the arrows of the sun.
The thought of the century measured
And he could not live life.
In October 1923, Bely returned to Moscow; Asya is forever in the past. But a woman appeared in his life who was destined to spend with him last years... Klavdia Nikolaevna Vasilieva (nee Alekseeva; 1886-1970) became Bely's last friend. Quiet, caring Claudia, as the writer called her, became Bely's wife on July 18, 1931.
Creation
Literary debut -. It was followed, in the individual genre of lyric rhythmized prose with characteristic mystical motives and grotesque perception of reality. Having entered the circle of Symbolists, he participated in the magazines "World of Art", "New Way", "Libra", "Golden Fleece", "Pass". Back in 1903, in the Novy Put magazine, he published an article “Concerning Merezhkovsky's Book: Leo Tolstoy and Dostoevsky”. The early collection of poems "Gold in Azure" is distinguished by formal experimentation and characteristic symbolist motives. After returning from abroad, he published collections of poems "Ashes" (1909; the tragedy of rural Russia), "Urn", the novel "The Silver Dove", essays "The Tragedy of Creativity. Dostoevsky and Tolstoy ".
The results of his own literary-critical activity, partly of symbolism in general, are summarized in the collections of articles "Symbolism" (1910; also includes poetry works), "Green Meadow" (1910; includes critical and polemical articles, essays on Russian and foreign writers), " Arabesque ". In 1914-1915 the first edition of the novel "Petersburg" was published, which is the second part of the trilogy "East or West".
In the novel "Petersburg" (1913-14; revised abridged edition of 1922), a symbolized and satirical depiction of Russian statehood. The first in the planned series of autobiographical novels - "Kitten Letaev"; the series is continued by the novel "The Baptized Chinese". In 1915 he wrote a study "Rudolf Steiner and Goethe in the worldview of our time."
The understanding of the First World War as a manifestation of the general crisis of Western civilization is reflected in the cycle "At the Pass" ("I. The Crisis of Life", 1918; "II. The Crisis of Thought", 1918; "III. The Crisis of Culture", 1918). The perception of the life-giving element of the revolution as a saving way out of this crisis is in the essay “Revolution and Culture”, the poem “Christ is Risen”, and the collection of poems “The Star”. Also in 1922 in Berlin he published the “sound poem” “Glossolalia”, where, based on the teachings of R. Steiner and the method of comparative historical linguistics, he develops the theme of creating a universe from sounds. Upon his return to Soviet Russia, he creates an epic novel ("Moscow Eccentric", "Moscow under attack", "Masks"), writes memoirs - "Memories of Blok" and a memoir trilogy "At the turn of two centuries", "Beginning of the century", " Between two revolutions ”.
Among the last works of Andrei Bely - theoretical and literary studies "Rhythm as a dialectic and" The Bronze Horseman "and" The Mastery of Gogol ", which allowed him to be called" the genius of corrosiveness. " An abbreviated presentation of Bely's theoretical calculations about the rhythm of Russian verse is given by Nabokov in the appendix to the English translation.
Influence
Bely's stylistic manner is extremely individualized - it is rhythmic, patterned prose with numerous fairy-tale elements. According to VB Shklovsky, “Andrei Bely is the most interesting writer of our time. All modern Russian prose bears its traces. Pilnyak is a shadow of smoke, if White is smoke. " To denote the influence of A. Bely and A. M. Remizov on post-revolutionary literature, the researcher uses the term "ornamental prose". This direction became the main one in the literature of the first years of Soviet power.
In 1922, Osip Mandelstam called on writers to overcome Andrei Bely as “the pinnacle of Russian psychological prose” and to return from weaving words to pure storytelling action. Since the late 1920s. Belov's influence on Soviet literature is steadily fading away.
(real name - Boris Nikolaevich Bugaev)
(1880-1934) Russian prose writer, poet, critic, literary critic
The future famous Symbolist was born in the family of Professor N. Bugaev, a famous mathematician, author of the original theory of evolutionary monatodology and chairman of the Moscow Mathematical Society. Bugaev's childhood years passed in the everyday and intellectual atmosphere of professorial Moscow. She had an impact not only on his mental development, but also on the subconscious. Later, in his novels and memoirs, he will create images of celebrities who were in the house, in the form of caryatids, holders of a special system of the universe. Probably, thanks to his irrepressible energy, the father will receive in this hierarchy the honorable nickname of Hephaestus, the god of fire, mobile and changeable.
Mother was concerned only with herself, led a secular life. Her beauty is evidenced by the image of a young woman in the painting "Boyar's Wedding" by K. Makovsky, for which she posed.
Each of the parents dreamed of making a future genius out of the boy: his father saw him as a successor to his work, his mother dreamed of all-round development, taught music and literacy. Later, Bugaev recalled that he was afraid to upset his mother with his misunderstanding and therefore became even more dull.
In order to defend himself, he went into his inner world, which was largely shaped under the influence of the works of Main Read, Jules Verne. Later, children's fantasies and fears (Bugaev was often ill) also became the content of his books. After all, he began to notice a lot early. Duality will become his usual state, over time he will even give up his name.
Bugaev enters L. Polivanov's private gymnasium. Many Russian figures passed through the hands of this teacher, a connoisseur of Russian literature, the author of an original method of education, V. Bryusov studied there from symbolist circles close to Bugaev.
Childhood ends, the time comes for reading Baudelaire, Verlaine, White, Hauptmann, Ibsen. The first writing experiments date back to the autumn of 1895. As a poet, Bugaev is formed under the influence of French decadents and Russian philosophy.
In 1896 he met the family of M. Soloviev, brother of the philosopher V. Soloviev. They settled in the same house at the corner of Arbat and Denezhny lane where the Bugaevs lived. Seryozha Soloviev becomes a friend and friend of the poet, and Solovyov's wife introduces him to the work of the Impressionists and Vrubel. Bugaev is fond of the music of Grieg, Wagner, Rimsky-Korsakov.
Soloviev came up with a pseudonym for a novice writer - Andrei Bely. After all, out of respect for his father, Bugaev did not dare to publish under his own name and signed a "natural science student". At that time, he was studying at the Natural Sciences Department of the Physics and Mathematics Faculty of Moscow University.
True, Andrei Bely performed under other pseudonyms, at least twelve of them are known, among them - Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Kunktator, Leonid Ledyanoy. Such scattering testified to the unstable state of the poet, he is still in the process of self-searching.
Constancy was not a feature of Bely. He even composed his poems on the run, in the process of movement, movement. Andrei Bely did not perceive a single text as final: when releasing reprints, he sometimes changed the text so much that he presented variations on the same theme. Huck, he copied the poems from the collection "Ashes" three times, for the 1923 and 1929 editions. The last version was prepared for the collection "Calls of the Time", but it did not come out due to the death of the poet.
The novel "Petersburg" exists in four editions, and in the first of them the rhythmic structure was determined by the amphibrachium, and in the second - by the anapest. This structure demanded an explanation. No publisher accepted Masks (1932) in poetic form. Therefore, Bely had to give prefaces to his works, supply them with diagrams and drawings, and conduct special seminars on metrics.
The first works of Bely have largely not survived; excerpts from others were later printed in Northern Flowers and the Golden Fleece.
Andrei Bely has always dreamed of harmonizing exact sciences and music. He did not work in his specialty, but in articles and theoretical and philosophical studies he even used mathematical calculations to build his theories.
The philosophy of V. Soloviev and F. Nietzsche becomes a support for Bely. He openly declares that he based on their conclusions to construct his own system of views associated with the mystical transformation of being and the knowledge of the secret of existence.
The beginning of the 20th century was marked by Bely's work on Symphonies. They represent a new form, lyrical rhythmic prose, where various storylines flock according to the laws of musical composition in the form of separate leitmotifs.
As the author wrote, it was important for him to convey the spiritual harmony of the surrounding world in all its sides, parts and manifestations. But he is still only developing his own style, the first symphony still has strong book impressions. The Third Symphony is interesting for its prophetic pathos.
Andrei Bely constantly expanded his circle of literary acquaintances, he learned a lot from V. Bryusov, a certain influence on the poet was exerted by the circle of Merezhkovsky-Gippius. He published articles "Forms of art" (1902) and "Symbolism as a world view" (1904), significant for creativity, in their religious and philosophical journal "New Way".
Bely believed that he was an adherent of a new art, true symbolism. His views were shared by like-minded people, mainly students of Moscow University, who called themselves Argonauts.
After meeting with A. Blok in 1903, it becomes clear to them that both poets are developing in the same direction. True, Andrei Bely himself admitted that at that time he was inferior to Blok in literary skill. The relationship of friendship and enmity will be reflected in the correspondence, which is an invaluable monument to the history of the development of symbolism as a literary movement.
1904 brought disappointment, Andrei Bely departs from the circle of Argonauts and starts a controversy with Bryusov. The subject of attacks was that Bryusov became a friend for his beloved, abandoned by Andrei Bely. In relations with N. Piotrovskaya, Bely hoped to find astral love, but they developed into a trivial romance. Then he breaks up with her. Both poets reflect their impressions in poetry, Bryusov does White hero his novel "The Fiery Angel".
A new streak of creativity begins with a collaboration in the leading Symbolist journal Libra, where Bely publishes his articles, notes, and reviews. Gradually he became a leading theorist of symbolism.
For some time (in 1906-1909) Andrei Bely believed that he was in love with Blok's wife L. Mendeleev. But rather, he paid tribute to the general mood, because many believed that Mendeleev would become the earthly personification of the Eternal Femininity, substantiated by V. Solovyov and realized by Blok in verse. Later, Bely will reflect his feelings, inspired by unrequited love and disappointments in youthful dreams, in the collection Urn (1909), the story The Bush, in the image of the angel Peri in the novel Petersburg (1916), and also in his memoirs.
Andrei Bely was one of those people who were easily influenced by others and were carried away by many things at the same time. He easily changed the tone in relations with others, moving from friendship to hatred and vice versa. It is known that Bely repeatedly provoked those around him to a duel, but they were not allowed by those close to him.
Bely's literary life ran in parallel with his university studies. After graduating from the natural sciences department in 1903 with a first-degree diploma, in the fall of 1905, Andrei Bely entered the historical and philosophical department. But soon he leaves it without finishing. Now he focuses entirely on literary creation.
Shklovsky believed that new prose had emerged from Bely's Symphonies, no longer connected with the traditional plot, but with the splitting of the narrative whole, where individual components matter, but not the whole. Of course, the followers also used a brilliant semantic game, which Bely started in almost every of his works. One of the critics noted that the poet's fractional world is, as it were, captured by the faceted vision of insects.
Bely's revolutionary sentiments were probably reflected in the change in the plot orientation of his works. In 1904-1908 he created the book of poems "Ashes", where he showed his attitude to the theme of the homeland. It is curious that again Bely and Blok think the same, they turn to the traditions of N. Nekrasov, thinking about where will go Russia.
Andrey Bely writes:
The outstretched army of vastness:
In spaces of concealment of space.
Russia, where should I run
From hunger, pestilence and drunkenness? ("Rus").
Some critics believe that although Bely is pessimistic and does not see the future, in artistic skill - rhythmic diversity, verbal ingenuity, sonic richness - he surpasses Blok, who clearly outlined the possible revival of Russia.
In the novel The Silver Dove (1910), Andrei Bely continues the historical and philosophical line of opposing East and West. He follows the traditions of Gogol, ethnographically accurately depicting scenes of witchcraft and erotic-mystical delights.
Formally, the plot is subordinated to the story of the hero Daryalsky, who falls into the hands of sectarian doves. In fact, Bely endlessly varies the themes and motives of the work, seeking to divide the novel into separate components. The language of the work is rhythmized, like Gogol's early stories, in places it is indistinct and melodious. This is how Andrei Bely reflected the confused state of his heroes.
Later it became clear that he discovered the Neogogolian era in Russian prose, becoming the creator of a new literary form - musical-rhythmic prose.
In the ten years Asya Turgeneva entered the life of Bely. She perceived their relationship primarily as friendly, while Bely believed in more, so he later included the travels made together in his novels as memoirs that were meaningful to him.
Beginning in 1912, the poet traveled around Europe, during his wanderings he met anthroposophists, their teacher Steiner. In 1915-1916 in Dornach, Bely took part in the construction of St. John's Church. He returned to Russia in 1916 in connection with a military conscription. Asya remains in Europe.
The pre-revolutionary decade was marked by the release of Bely's best work, the novel Petersburg, in which he described the disintegration of the consciousness of his hero, the intellectual N. Ableukhov. The leading motives are the theme of the city of Peter as the personification of a powerful destructive force and the problem of the revolutionary whirlwind that burst into Russia.
The story of the Russian intellectual declared by Andrei Bely in the time of troubles is a kind of generalization of those ideological searches that were once pursued by Pushkin, Gogol, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy. In turn, with his riddles, hidden references, allusions and reminiscences, Bely influenced the representatives of Russian ornamentalism, enchanted with his searches E. Zamyatin, B. Pilnyak, V. Nabokov.
Around the mid-tenths, Bely consistently created a personal biography, he intended to call it the epic "My Life". In the preface to the story "Kitty Letaev" published in 1922, Andrei Bely calls himself a psychologist-paleontologist. He even remembers the shape of the clouds that floated in different years over the estate of his father "Silver Well". Therefore, he openly declares that his memory captures the smallest impressions of life. They become the content of the book, starting with the intra-coffin memories. In the story "The Baptized Chinese", the second part of the epic, the poet tells about a more mature period of his life.
A kind of continuation of the epic is the "Notes of a Eccentric" (1922), the writer formulates his task as follows: the purpose of this diary is “to tear the mask off oneself, as from a writer; and tell about yourself, a person who was once shaken forever. ... ... My life gradually became my writing material. "
Returning to Moscow, Andrei Bely became the messenger of a new culture. She was revolutionary in spirit, but not in social aspirations. In his lectures and articles ("Revolution and Culture"), Bely calls for a revolt against forms. He writes a lot, although everyday disorder led to illness. Nevertheless, the poet finds the strength to publish what was previously written.
Having recovered from his illness, he went abroad for two years. In Berlin, a decisive explanation and final break with Asya Turgeneva takes place. Steiner shies away from a date with Bely, who calls himself Russia's ambassador to anthroposophy, and their relationship also ends. At the same time, the Berlin biennium became a record time for Bely's publication of his works: seven reprints and nine new publications are coming out.
Latently, the writer comes up with the idea of a memoir, partially lost during the move, but restored in the early thirties. The idea of "Memories of Blok" was realized in 1922-1923.
Another direction of creativity is associated with the creation of the novel "Moscow". It came out in the form of two parts - "Moscow Eccentric" and "Moscow under attack."
The last decade has been the most dramatic for Bely. His companion, K. Vasilieva (Bugaeva), was arrested along with other leaders of the anthroposophical movement. The poet writes a pathetic appeal addressed to I. Stalin. Claudia returns home.
She was not only a friend, but also Bely's personal secretary. Perhaps that is why he managed to create a grandiose work - the memoir trilogy "At the turn of the century" (1931), "Beginning of the century" (1933), "Between two revolutions", in which he recreated the time that was later called the "Silver Age".
Bely again manages to show style innovation, he has a lively conversation with the reader, capturing curious details of the life of that time. Of course, some of the characteristics seem grotesque, the characters are outlined in satirical colors. Andrei Bely is trying to find agreement with the then authorities, but nevertheless it is assessed negatively in the press. True, in the devastating article by L. Trotsky, the poet's amazing gift to construct his own universe is noted.
In parallel, beginning in late 1928, Bely returned to his works on the rhythm of Russian verse (Rhythm as Dialectics and The Bronze Horseman, 1929), and finished his reflections on Gogol's prose (The Mastery of Gogol, 1934).
Bely's death was unexpected; he died of cerebral spasm after sunstroke. Probably, the brain disease was not recognized in time.
Briefly:
Andrey Bely (1880-1934). Nickname Bugaev Boris Nikolaevich. The writer was born into the family of a famous mathematician. Later he entered the Physics and Mathematics Faculty of Moscow University, where he organized a circle of "Argonauts". In 1904, A. Bely's first collection of poetry, "Gold in Azure", was published. In 1910, the book of articles "Symbolism" was published, which is important for understanding his attitude to creativity. The poet seeks to bring literature closer to music, which is reflected in his four Symphonies: Dramatic (1901), Northern (1904), Return (1905), Ball of Snowstorms (1908). Two more collections of his poems - "Ashes" and "Urn" - were published in 1909.
The collections of poems published after the revolution - "Zvezda" (1919) and "After Parting" - testified to a passion for anthroposophy (the result of a trip to Europe). Bely and his wife accompanied the founder of anthroposophy, R. Steiner, on his travels across the continent.
The writer's prose works include the novels The Silver Dove (1909), Petersburg (1912), Kotik Letaev (1917), Moscow (1926). Andrei Bely also left the most interesting memoirs "At the turn of two centuries" (1930), "Beginning of the century" (1933), "Between two revolutions" (1934).
Source: A quick reference book of a student. Russian literature / Auth.-comp. I.N. Agekyan. - Minsk: Contemporary writer, 2002
More details:
Andrei Bely (real name - Boris Nikolaevich Bugaev) - poet, prose writer (26.10. 1880 Moscow - 8.1.1934 ibid.). He was born into a highly educated noble family. Father is a professor of mathematics at Moscow University. The first hobbies of Andrei Bely are associated with German culture (Goethe, Heine, Beethoven), since 1897 he has been intensively engaged in Dostoevsky and Ibsen, as well as modern French and Belgian poetry. After graduating from the gymnasium in 1899, he became an adherent of Vl. Soloviev and Nietzsche. In music, his love now belongs to Grieg and Wagner. Along with philosophy and music, Andrei Bely was interested in natural sciences, which led him to the mathematical faculty of Moscow University, graduated from him in 1903, but until 1906 he continued to attend the philological faculty.
Around 1903 he met A. Blok and K. Balmont, became close to a circle of St. Petersburg Symbolists, headed by D. Merezhkovsky and Z. Gippius, until 1909 collaborated with the journal Libra. Bely's numerous publications begin with rhythmic prose " Symphony"(1902), which attracted attention by the unusual language and structure of the author's thoughts. Andrei Bely collected the first poems in a collection" Gold in azure"(1904), followed by the collections" Ash"(1908) and" Urn"(1909), reflecting already in the titles the phase of disappointments experienced by the author. Andrei Bely published his first novel in the journal" Veda " Silver dove" (1909).
In 1910, a new period of Bely's creativity began, which lasted until about 1920, due to his philosophical hobbies. In 1910-11. he travels to Italy, Egypt, Tunisia and Palestine. From 1912 to 1916 he lives mainly in Western Europe, for some time - in Dornach with Rudolf Steiner, whose anthroposophical teaching strongly influenced him. In Germany, Andrei Bely became friends with Christian Morgenstern.
His second novel " Petersburg"(1912) continues the first in spirit. On his return to Russia in 1916, he published his third novel," Kitty Letaev"(1917-18), more autobiographical. He joined the literary group" Scythians "(with R. Ivanov-Razumnik and A. Blok).
Andrei Bely perceived the October coup in a mystical vein, as an opportunity for the religious and spiritual renewal of Russia. Bely taught at the Proletkult Studio. In November 1921 he left for Berlin, where he published many collections of poetry, prose and theoretical works. In October 1923 Andrei Bely returned to Russia. The experience was reflected in his essay " One of the abodes of the kingdom of shadows"(1924). What he later wrote is mostly autobiographical, his works preserve the traditions of Symbolism and stand apart in Soviet literature, but they are qualitatively different from the earlier texts. . began to be widely published at home.
Bely is one of the most significant Russian symbolists, this applies to philosophy, the theory of creativity, as well as poetry and prose. He is one of the pioneers of Russian modernism. His art is largely determined by mystical experiences, he insists on a comprehensive renewal. Four " Symphonies"Bely (1902-08) are united by the desire in the synthesis of poetry and music to achieve renewal of the syntax and rhythmic structures of the language, to achieve its" liberation. "The first collection of his poems -" Gold in azure"- belongs to the" apocalyptic "phase of Russian symbolism with its menacing image of a big city. The following collections of this author are closer to Russian reality, although they remain faithful to the magical ideas about the word. Bely's occupations in occultism were reflected in the novel" Silver dove", where he develops the old cultural-philosophical problem of the position of Russia between East and West on the example of a person brought up by Western civilization and captured occult powers East. The author is primarily interested in the technique of depiction, the imagery of the language, the musical principles of repetition and rhythmic construction. Andrei Bely continues the tradition of Gogol's grotesque. Novel " Petersburg"which arises in the same circle of problems (the opposite of Eastern and Western worldviews), but connected with anthroposophy and showing a conflict between a father-senator and a son who fell under the influence of terrorists," is focused on reflecting consciousness, but consciousness distorted in grotesques and split into independent segments. " Christ is Risen"(1918) the chaos of the Bolshevik coup is viewed as a spiritual and mystical event of world historical significance, and hopes for Russia are associated only with the recognition of the Resurrection of Christ. Bely's stylized prose in the novel achieves the greatest expressiveness." Kitty Letaev". The author shows the child's consciousness, in which time borders on space, reality with myth. This is a work that" anticipated the most daring formal experiments of Joyce ... "(Struve). identification of characters with mythological images Memories written in 1929-33, although brilliant in a stylistic sense, are historically unreliable.