The book is narrated in the first person, and the work itself is travel notes. However, the goal of Alexander Nikolaevich Radishchev is not so much a description of his path as philosophical reflections on the social and moral problems of Russian society. In each chapter, the author touches on one of the topical topics.
The narrator should be understood as Alexander Nikolaevich Radishchev himself, who in this work is a middle-aged nobleman.
A.M.K.
The text of the story “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow” begins with an epigraph from V. K. Trediakovsky’s poem “Tilemakhida” and a dedication to Alexei Mikhailovich Kutuzov, who was Radishchev’s friend from the University of Leipzig. Despite their close friendship, Radishchev and Kutuzov often argued and polemicized. In this dedication, the author emphasizes that no matter how much his views differ from Kutuzov, he always remains the most dear person to the writer.
Departure
After dinner with friends, the author set off on a long journey. The driver drove his horses recklessly, so the wagon quickly left the city and rushed along a deserted road. Tired of sad thoughts, the narrator dozed off, but was soon awakened. The travelers arrived at the first point on their way - Sofia.
Sofia
It was night outside, and everyone here was sleeping peacefully. Even the commissioner at the postal yard, who was on duty. Woke up, he refused to give the narrator fresh horses, lying that there were none. The travelers had to turn to the coachmen for help. For a small fee, they harnessed their horses. The journey to Moscow continued.
Tosno
The road from St. Petersburg was quite good, but the further the carriage moved from the capital, the more difficult it became to travel. The mounds of earth, which were good in dry weather, did not stand the test of rain. In some places it was almost impossible to continue the journey. WITH with great difficulty The men reached Tosno, where they rested in a postal hut.
Here the author met a minor official who spoke about his “important” business. He wrote a book about nobles, trying to restore the genealogy of every noble Russian family. In the future, this official hoped that his work would be adequately paid. The author considered this activity very stupid and suggested that the researcher sell the covered sheets of paper for wrappers to peddlers.
Lyubani
The narrator was already quite tired of the carriage, and he decided to walk a little. In the field, the author met a peasant who was working hard on his plot. It was in the hottest sun, and on Sunday at that, which greatly surprised the writer.
After talking with the peasant, the narrator learned that he had a large family that needed to be fed. You have to work six days a week for the landowner, so you only have Sundays and all nights for yourself. The peasant's story plunged the author into despondency. He remembered his servant Petrusha, to whom he was also not always fair.
Miracle
Stopping at the postal hut, the narrator met here his friend Ch., whom he had left in St. Petersburg. He told the writer about his recent incident during a boat trip. The weather on the Gulf of Finland suddenly deteriorated, and the ship on which twenty people were sailing hit the rocks. Water began to flow through the hole, but it was useless to scoop it out. The ship began to slowly sink. One of the sailors named Pavel decided to take a desperate step - he walked along the rocks to the shore. At this time, all the passengers in the sinking boat desperately prayed and looked with hope after the retreating sailor.
Pavel, with great difficulty, reached the shore and rushed to the local commander for help. There he encountered the cruel indifference of a subordinate who refused to wake up his boss. The words that people were drowning in the boat did not touch this man’s heart at all. Then Pavel rushed into the guard room to the soldiers who had their own boats. They immediately agreed to help the drowning people. Fortunately, the story ended happily, all passengers on the ship were saved. However, Ch., struck by the criminal indifference of his superiors, decided to leave the capital forever.
Spasskaya Polest
The narrator tried to catch up with his friend, but he moved away incredibly quickly. And then there was a downpour, which forced the author to spend the night at the station. Behind the wall he heard the couple talking. The husband told his wife about one official who was madly in love with oysters. For this delicacy, he encouraged and promoted his subordinates, rewarded them and awarded them titles.
In the morning the narrator drove on. A strange man asked to be his traveling companion, and on the way he told his story. He used to be a merchant, but somehow he trusted swindlers and ended up on trial. The merchant's pregnant wife gave birth prematurely due to excitement and soon died. The child did not survive either. Now the man is running from the authorities and doesn’t trust anyone anymore.
The story of this man made a very strong impression on the author. In a disturbing dream, he saw himself as a ruler whose state is developing well and prospering. But then a woman appeared who called herself Truth. She removed the veil from the ruler’s eyes, and a terrifying picture of lawlessness was revealed to his gaze. Waking up, the author breathed a sigh of relief. It was just a dream.
Podberezye
It was difficult for the narrator to continue on his way due to a terrible headache. Arriving at the postal camp, he began to look for a reliable remedy for such an ailment in a home clinic. Then he remembered that his nanny often filmed headache five cups of coffee. The author decided to follow this advice. There was a lot of invigorating drink, and he treated a cup of coffee to the young man who was located next door.
The new acquaintance turned out to be a seminarian; he was going to the capital to visit relatives. The young man complained about the poor system of training seminarians, who, apart from Latin, are taught practically nothing. Therefore, it is very difficult for a person to find the truth. After saying goodbye, the seminarian dropped some papers. After reading them, the narrator realized that the young man was an adherent of one mystical teaching. The writer himself did not welcome such hobbies.
Novgorod
Approaching Novgorod, the author surrendered historical memories and philosophical reasoning. The once great city, in which all important decisions were made at the people's meeting, has long lost its former strength. The reason for this is the ruthless and treacherous Tsar Ivan the Terrible, whose guardsmen captured the city and humiliated the Novgorodians. It turns out that only one right of the strong reigns in the world.
In Novgorod, the narrator had lunch with his old acquaintance: the merchant of the III guild, a very respected man in the city, Karp Dementievich. He recently married his son.
Bronnitsy
Having reached Bronnitsy, the author decided to climb the mountain where the famous temple, famous for its prophecies, used to stand. Now on the site of the former temple there was a small church. The author offers prayers to God, in which he tries to confirm his idea that the Lord is one for all people. He also argues that everything in this world is perishable, but something is eternal in the name of life.
Zaytsovo
In Zaitsovo, the author met his friend Krestyankin, who told a blatant incident from his judicial practice. A new landowner appeared in one village. He was of low class, but received the rank of collegiate assessor and was able to acquire several peasant families into his possession. This man became famous for his incredible cruelty, he squeezed the last juices out of people, considered them beasts and constantly punished them. The same scoundrel was the son of a collegiate assessor, who tried to rape a peasant girl before her wedding. The groom managed to free the bride, but broke the skull of one of the assessor’s sons. He decided to brutally punish the peasants, which gave impetus to the rebellion in this village. As a result, the entire family of fanatics was killed. At the trial, only the author’s friend spoke in defense of the peasants, who took into account all the reasons that led to this tragedy. Then the honest judge decided to resign because he could no longer work in such a judicial system.
Sacrum
In this chapter, the narrator witnessed how a father sent his sons to serve. The author reflects on the children of nobles, how correctly they enter into adult life. Meanwhile, the father from Krestsy believes that children should eventually leave their father’s house, but it is very difficult for him to step over his feelings. Sons respectfully listen to all the instructions of the parent, heed every word. When the young men got into the cart with tears, the father on his knees began to ask God to keep and protect his children.
Yazhelbitsy
Driving past the cemetery in Yazhelbitsy, the author witnessed a terrible sight. The father buried his son in terrible sobs and could not say goodbye to him. In his groans, he sadly lamented the fact that he himself had caused the early death of his child, who had contracted the stinking disease in the womb.
This picture led the narrator to sad reflections that youthful debauchery sometimes brings bitter fruits. Sexually transmitted diseases are the scourge of Russia, for which the author blames the authorities, who could close brothels and pay more attention to issues moral education youth.
Valdai
This chapter is a thematic continuation of the previous one. The author passes through the city of Valdai, which is well known for its shameless, flushed girls. The settlement received such fame during the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich. By order of the monarch, Polish prisoners were provided with housing here. Valdai girls are ready to seduce every traveler and then rob him completely. The author tells the story of one monk who every night swam from his monastery to his mistress from Valdai. One day such a journey ended tragically: the monk drowned in the middle of the lake. It is unlikely that the Valdai mistress grieved for a long time about this, the author believes.
Edrovo
The narrator met on his way a group of beautiful peasant women, with one of whom he decided to talk. The girl's name was Anna. At first she was wary of the unfamiliar master, but quickly realized that he had no evil intentions. Anna talked about how she was going to get married, but she didn’t have enough money for that. The narrator expressed a desire to help the young people and asked the girl to introduce him to her fiancé. A little later it turned out that the issue of money for the wedding had already been resolved and the celebration would take place on Sunday. The author wants to give money to the future family to start a new life, but they categorically refuse.
The narrator is delighted spiritual beauty and the pride of a peasant girl, he believes that simple Russian young ladies are more beautiful and much kinder than secular ladies.
Khotilov
In this chapter, the author accidentally finds a bundle of papers left by a man with progressive views. He reads with interest the document, which truthfully sets out the state of affairs in Russia. The author of the letter denounces serfdom; he believes that all people should be brothers, love each other and honor God.
Vyshny Volochok
This was not the first time the narrator had passed through Vyshny Volochok and always examined the local landmark - the locks - with great interest. However, admiration for the city's engineering and wealth leads the narrator to believe that behind it all lies the hard work of oppressed people. Therefore, the happy life of some at the expense of the health and well-being of others is a terrible injustice.
Vydropusk
In this chapter, the author again reads through the papers that he found in Khotilov. He is amazed at the foresight of a man who so accurately and truthfully described the problems of the Russian state, all the disastrous consequences of the short-sighted rule of the tsars. Surrounding themselves with luxury, the rulers cared little about their people. The author believes that descendants should correct these mistakes and live wisely and moderately.
Torzhok
In Torzhok, the narrator met a young man who was outraged by state censorship. He wants there to be free printing in his city, everyone who wants to boldly express their thoughts, without any fear of persecution. For this purpose, the young man intends to take the petition to St. Petersburg. In this chapter, the narrator philosophizes a lot about censorship and tells the story of the emergence of this phenomenon.
Copper
The author rereads the bundle of papers again. He was very interested in the idea that peasants in Russia are living commodities. At the whim of the landowners, their families can easily be separated, the people themselves can be sold, exchanged, or lost at cards. Serfdom is a great evil that does not allow the state to develop properly.
Tver
In Tver, the author meets a poet, with whom he talks for a long time about Russian versification, about the fact that outdated writing standards are “stifling” young talents in the bud. Gradually, the conversation about poetry turns to the topic of freethinking. The poet travels to St. Petersburg, where he plans to publish his ode entitled “Liberty.” He understands that it will be extremely difficult to do this, but he is determined to fulfill his dream.
Gorodnya
The author came to the village during a recruitment drive. In one group of people he saw a serf guy, whom all his relatives were seeing off to military service with bitter tears. The mother and bride are crying. The newlyweds were not even given the opportunity to get married. The recruit tries to console those closest to him, but everyone understands that these words mean little. However, in another crowd, the narrator met a man who was very happy to become a soldier. The young man has suffered so much from his mistress that he is ready to run away from her anywhere. And then such a lucky chance turned up.
Zavidovo
His Excellency was expected to arrive in Zavidovo. On this occasion, some boss in a grenadier hat demanded fifty horses from the headman. Since there were not so many animals in the city, the headman tried to justify himself almost in tears. However, the boss did not listen to him and called him names last words and beat him with a whip. The narrator also had to become a participant in this incident, because the boss coveted his three horses. After this skirmish, the author reflects for a long time on the fact that the people in Russia are accustomed to servility. And people in power become even more impudent from this.
Wedge
In this city, the narrator met a blind old man at the post office who sang a mournful song. The traveler gave the disabled man a ruble, but he refused to accept alms. He said that he didn’t even see where to put this ruble. From the story of the old man, it became clear to the author that in his youth he fought, was very brave in battle, and did not spare his enemies. He killed even those who surrendered and asked for mercy. For such sins, the elder believes, he lost his sight in one battle.
Instead of a ruble, the disabled person asked the traveler for a handkerchief that could warm his throat, since it was very inflamed. The author took the scarf from his neck and gave it to his new acquaintance. Returning to St. Petersburg, the narrator no longer found the old man. He died recently. The man was buried in a scarf, which he gratefully accepted from the author.
Pawns
In one peasant hut, a traveler asked to sit at the table to have lunch. When the hostess saw that the guest was putting pieces of sugar in the coffee, she asked for some of the master's delicacy for the child. After all, all year round they eat only chaff bread and empty cabbage soup. Such revelations amazed the author, and he began to carefully examine the hut. The walls and ceiling were covered with soot, and sunlight was poorly penetrated through the windows from the bubble. The stove had no chimney, so the smell of smoke was always present in the hut.
The traveler was also struck by the poor furnishings of the home: a table cut down with an ax, simple dishes, and practically no furniture. Pigs lived with people. The author is outraged by such living conditions of the peasants. He talks about the lordly tyranny. If a serf cannot be killed by law, then he can be sent to the next world early with such inhumane treatment.
Black mud
The traveler witnessed one wedding, which struck him with its despondency. The bride and groom looked doomed at this fun event. The fact is that the landowner arranged a wedding for these people against their will. In fact, the newlyweds could not stand each other.
The rest of the way to Moscow, the author reads a treatise on Lomonosov, which was given to him by a poet from Tver. It says a lot about the indisputable contribution of Mikhail Vasilyevich to Russian science and culture. But this man’s fate could have been different. The boy was born into an ordinary peasant family, very poor. It is clear that his parents could not provide him with at least some education. But Lomonosov went to study in Moscow on foot.
It is difficult to name a science to which Mikhail Vasilyevich would not make a contribution. He is the first Russian natural scientist of world significance, left his remarkable works in astronomy, history, genealogy, chemistry, physics, and created the molecular kinetic theory of heat. We also know Lomonosov as a poet, artist, philosopher, and a man of encyclopedic knowledge.
Here is a brief summary of the story by Alexander Nikolaevich Radishchev “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow”. This is an outstanding creation of Russian literature of the 18th century, the name of which clearly reflects the events described. Below is brief retelling key points of each chapter.
The action of the work takes place in the second half of the eighteenth century in the summer, at the turn of July and August. The reader has access to the main outline of the work. The description is structured for ease of reading; short chapters are combined into one section. In the introduction, the author says that various misfortunes befall a person because he does not look at things straight. He hopes that at least some readers will support his book.
Chapters 1−3
- "Departure". The main character, a middle-aged aristocrat, goes from St. Petersburg to Moscow in his wagon.
- "Sofia". Arriving in the city at night, he asks the commissar for fresh horses to continue his journey. But he is lazy to work at night, so he lies that there are no horses available. At the same time, approximately 20 horses are waiting in the stables. Having not received help from the commissar, our hero turns to the coachmen. For a small “tip,” they harness the horses, secretly from the commissar. The author is finally leaving.
- "Tosna". The traveler complains about the bad road between the capitals. Not long ago this road was repaired because the retinue of Empress Catherine II passed along it. Soon the trail deteriorated. In Tosny, the writer meets an official - a “prospector” of ancient noble families. The official published a stupid book. With its help, nobles can supposedly prove their origin. For this they seem to be able to gain a more important status in society. The author realizes that the official is busy with stupidity. He believes that "bragging about an ancient breed" is evil.
Chapters 4 and 5
Spasskaya Polest
The author spends the night at the station. A juror and his wife spend the night in the room with him. He tells his wife a story about a governor who was very fond of oysters. He sent his subordinates out to buy oysters and gave them promotions for “good service.” The next morning, a wonderful man asks the writer to take him in his wagon. A fellow traveler tells how he became a victim of bureaucratic arbitrariness. Because of the indifference of government officials, he, a conscientious citizen, lost his money, family, and position in society. The police are looking for him, and now the assessor is running away.
On the way, the author sleeps and has a dream in which he is a great ruler. He is convinced that things are going perfectly in his country. Suddenly, in the crowd, he notices a woman calling herself a doctor named Truth. She removes the veil from the ruler’s eyes, and he begins to see clearly. He sees that the officials have fooled him, there is no order in the country, and the citizens are unhappy. The author wakes up in horror.
Chapters 7−9
Zaitsevo
The author stumbles upon his friend, Mr. Krestyankin, who was the head of the criminal chamber. He once examined the case of a cruel landowner. He overworked the peasants, beat them, starved them, and so on. The exhausted subordinates eventually beat the master and his family to death. The head of the court found the peasants innocent, but his colleagues demanded that the peasants be punished. In order not to participate in an unfair trial, Krestyankin left his position.
Having told this, Krestyankin says goodbye to the author and leaves. On the same day, the narrator receives a letter from St. Petersburg. He is informed that a 62-year-old woman and Baron Duryndin, 78, recently got married in the city. The lady was once of indecent behavior and created a “house of brothel.” She got rich through dirty work. Duryndin took her as his wife for the sake of finances, and she got married in order to free herself from loneliness.
Chapters 11−13
Chapters 14 and 15
- "Edrovo". While passing through this city, the narrator meets village women. He believes that peasant women are more attractive than city ladies who wear corsets and fashionable dresses. The author starts a conversation with a peasant girl, Anna. She says that she cannot marry Vanyusha until 100 rubles are paid. The writer gives her mother this amount. But it turns out that the ransom is no longer needed. Then the author gives funds as a gift. But the mother does not take it, despite her poverty. Aristocrats are known to bribe peasant women to compensate for violence and debauchery. Having said goodbye to Anna, the author thinks about unequal marriages (peasant women are given away to 10-year-old boys, and rich old men marry young girls). The traveler thinks this is wrong.
- "Khotilov". Coming out of the wagon, the author finds a package on the ground. In it, an unknown person expresses his thoughts on serfdom. He considers serfdom to be lawlessness and evil, and calls on the aristocrats and the authorities to abolish it. The main character learns that the author of what was written is his acquaintance. In addition to the package, the friend left a stack of other papers. The writer reads them too.
Chapters 16 and 17
Torzhok, Mednoe, Tver
- "Torzhok". Radishchev meets a man traveling to St. Petersburg. He hopes to push for the abolition of censorship in the city so that any books can be printed. The gentleman believes that in a stable democratic society it is not required, because the people are the first censor. But in Russia in the 18th century, she strictly controlled book printing. The author gives short review origin of "censorship".
- "Copper". Continuing his journey, the author comes across a note in the newspaper. It is dedicated to the sale of peasants and estates at auction. There are many nobles living and wasting their fortunes. Having fallen into debt, they sell the house and the peasants. Often, a peasant family was not sold as a whole, but one person at a time to different owners (kids separated from their parents, etc.). This is a true tragedy for them, but the law is not on their side.
- "Tver". While having a bite to eat in Tver, Radishchev meets a certain gentleman, a “newfangled drinker.” He complains that poetry in Russia is not improving, that all stanzas are written only in iambic, etc. The poet recites his poems - this is an ode to “Liberty.”
Chapter 21 - Gorodnya
The narrator witnesses the farewell of peasants to the army. An old mother sees off her only son; without him she is condemned to starvation. Her joyful Vanyusha is standing next to her. For him, service is happiness after humiliation from his inhuman landowners. Also here are three unfortunate peasants shackled. The master sold them to the rank and file in an illegal way in order to purchase a new carriage. Here's a Frenchman. He studied to be a hairdresser, but was a footman and a sailor. He was not taught to read and write, but still was a language teacher for the Russian boyars. In order not to die of hunger, he sold himself for 200 rubles, became a peasant and went to military service.
Zavidovo
At the station, the author notices an officer, an assistant to an important figure, “His Excellency.” The unscrupulous officer demands fifty horses for the commander. Therefore, even the author was going to take away his three horses, but the writer fights back the boor. When "Excellency" arrives, the coachmen change horses with unprecedented speed and send them on their way. The author reflects on the fact that narrow-minded people grovel and humiliate themselves before the “important birds.” And sensible people understand that behind the gloss and importance there often lurks insignificance.
Chapters 23 and 24
"Wedge". At the station, a blind old man sings songs. Poor peasants give him alms as much as they can. The writer puts a ruble, but he does not take it, but asks to give him something useful, for example, a warm scarf. The author readily parted with the thing. He soon learns that the old man died, but wore that warm scarf and was buried in it. Radishchev is glad that his item was useful to a poor beggar in last days his life.
Pawns
The author is having lunch in a peasant house. The landlady complains that the life of the peasants is hard. They eat poorly and are unable to even buy sugar, although they produce these products themselves. He says it's unfair. The writer notices the poverty reigning in the home. He ponders why the landowners bring their peasants to the extreme. The boyars do not think about the peasant children living in disease and hunger. The narrator calls on the landowner readers to heed their conscience and stop mocking the unfortunate peasants.
Chapters 26 and 27
- "Black Dirt". Here the author is greeted by a sad wedding. Peasants are forced to marry. The newlyweds have sad faces, they hate each other. The author reflects on such marriages and calls them a crime.
- "The Tale of Lomonosov". The reader is presented with an article that the author received from “piita” (chapter “Tver”). It illustrates the significance of Lomonosov in Russian culture. The poet says that Lomonosov was a pioneer in many scientific fields, but he made the greatest contribution to Russian literature. After this article, the author bows and says goodbye. He is already approaching Moscow.
The monster is loud, mischievous, huge, yawning and barking.
"Tilemachida", volume II, book. XVIII, verse 514*.
The book is prefaced by the words: “I looked around me - my soul became wounded by the suffering of humanity. I turned my gaze to my insides - and I saw that man’s misfortunes come from man, and often only from the fact that he looks indirectly at the objects around him.”
Departure – Sofia – Lyubani
After dinner with friends, the narrator sets off, settling into a tent.
At the inn with beautiful name He presents Sofia with a travel document (a document giving the right to receive post horses), but the sleeping commissioner lies that there are no horses. The traveler goes to the stable and sees that there are about twenty nags there, a couple of which could drag him to his next destination. In anger, the traveler even planned to beat the couch potato - “he intended to commit a crime on the commissar’s back.” However, he pulled himself together, gave the coachmen a small bribe - and now he was on the road again.
“...My cab driver began to sing, as usual, a mournful one. Anyone who knows the voices of Russian folk songs admits that there is something in them that signifies spiritual sorrow. In them you will find the formation of the soul of our people. Look at the Russian man; you will find him thoughtful. If he wants to relieve boredom and have fun, he goes to a tavern. In his joy he is impetuous, courageous, and grumpy. If something happens that is not according to him, then an argument or battle will soon begin. A barge hauler who goes to a tavern with his head hanging and returns stained with blood from slaps in the face can solve a lot of things that have hitherto been guessing in Russian history.”
At the Lyubani station, the traveler sees a peasant working in the arable land, despite the fact that it is Sunday.
- Don’t you have time to work all week long, why don’t you even let it go on Sunday, and even in the heat of the day?
“There are six days in a week, master, and we go to corvée six times a week; Yes, in the evening we take the hay left in the forest to the master’s yard, if the weather is good; and women and girls go for a walk on holidays to the forest to pick mushrooms and berries.
The peasant told the inquisitive master that he works for himself not only on holidays, but also at night. It gives the horses a break: one plows, the other rests. But he doesn’t allow himself to rest, he has three children, they all want to eat.
The man works for the master without much effort: “Although if you stretch yourself out at the master’s work, they won’t say thank you... Nowadays there is still a belief that villages are given away, as they say, for rent. And we call it giving with your head. A mercenary flays men; even best time does not leave us. In winter, he is not allowed to drive or work in the city; Everyone work for him, so that he pays the capitation (taxes, taxes) for us. The most diabolical invention is to give your peasants to work for someone else. At least you can complain about a bad clerk, but who can complain about a mercenary (tenant)?”
State peasants have at least some kind of protection, while peasants belonging to the landowner have no rights. The law will only pay attention to them when they commit some criminal crime.
“Fear, hard-hearted landowner, I see your condemnation on the forehead of each of your peasants!” - exclaims the justifiably angry author.
And he immediately feels remorse: he, too, oppresses his serf servant Petrushka. He even allows himself to beat him.
“If I hit someone, he can hit me too. Remember that day when Petrushka was drunk and did not have time to dress you. Remember his slap. Oh, if only he had come to his senses then, although drunk, and answered you in proportion to your question!
-Who gave you power over him?
- Law".
Radishchev leads the reader to the idea that such a law is unfair.
Spasskaya field
In this chapter, Radishchev develops a metaphorical vision of unjust power. He imagines that he is “a king, a khan, a king, a bey, a nabob, a sultan.” In a word, someone sitting on the throne.
Government officials, noble women, military leaders and learned men close to the throne, mature people and youth - all flatter the ruler and glorify him.
This obsequious outpouring of delight pleases the king. He rewards those who know how to flatter especially successfully.
But then his gaze stops at the woman who alone of all “showed an appearance of contempt and indignation.” This is a wanderer of the Straight View, an eye doctor, but not an ordinary one. Straight Gaze is a symbolic image of Truth that helps spiritual insight.
“It’s a thorn in both eyes,” said the wanderer, “and you judged everything so decisively.”
The stern woman removed the thick horny eyesores from the eyes of the man sitting on the throne. And he was able to see the price of flattery. The price of those who praise to your face, but laugh behind your back, thinking only about their own benefit.
Straight-View called on the ruler to expel the liars. She showed him the truth: “My clothes, so shiny, were stained with blood and wet with tears. On my fingers I saw the remains of a human brain; my feet stood in the mud. Those around me were even more stingy. Their entire insides seemed black and burned by the dull fire of gluttony. They cast distorted glances at me and each other, dominated by rapacity, envy, deceit and hatred. My commander, sent to conquer, was drowning in luxury and joy. There was no subordination in the troops; My warriors were considered worse than cattle.
Instead of being known among my people as merciful, I became known as a deceiver, a hypocrite and a pernicious comedian.”
The trusting ruler thought that he was helping the poor, orphans and widows, but cunning and liars sought his mercy!
This vision chapter is a message to all who have power over people and are called upon to distribute benefits fairly.
Podberezye - Novgorod - Bronnitsy
In educational institutions there is a dominance of dark and incomprehensible Latin. How nice it would be if modern items taught in modern Russian!
Radishchev criticizes the educational plans of Catherine II, who only promised to open new universities (for example, in Pskov), but limited herself to promises.
The author is also critical of the development of Christianity, which “at first was humble, meek, hidden in deserts and dens, then grew stronger, raised its head, withdrew from its path, indulged in superstition, erected a leader, expanded his power, and the pope became the most powerful of kings.”
Martin Luther (1483-1546) - church reformer, founder of the so-called Lutheranism, directed against the dogmas of Catholicism and the abuses of the popes, began the transformation, papal power and superstitions began to collapse.
But the path of humanity is such that people constantly fluctuate from superstition to freethinking.
The writer's task is to expose the extremes and enlighten at least one reader.
Approaching Novgorod, Radishchev recalls the bloody massacre of Ivan IV with Novgorod in 1570. Novgorod was annexed to Moscow (1478) by the Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan III. “What right did he have to rage against them; What right did he have to appropriate Novgorod? Is it that the first great Russian princes lived in this city? Or that it was written by the Tsar of All Rus'? Or that the Novgorodians were a Slavic tribe? But what is right when force acts?..
What is people's right?..
Examples from all times indicate that law without force has always been considered an empty word in execution.”
Zaytsovo
In Zaitsov, the narrator meets his old friend, who told him about the career of a certain local nobleman, who began his service as a stoker, and having asked to resign, was awarded the rank of collegiate assessor and found an opportunity to buy a village in his native place, in which he settled with his considerable family.
Having climbed “from rags to riches,” the assessor became the ruler of several hundred of his own kind. And it turned his head.
“He was selfish, hoarded money, cruel by nature, hot-tempered, mean, and therefore arrogant towards his weakest. From this you can judge how he treated the peasants. The previous landowner had them on rent, he planted them on arable land; he took away all the land from them, bought all the cattle from them at a price that he himself determined, forced them to work all week for himself, and so that they would not die of hunger, he fed them in the master’s yard, and then only once a day... If anyone seemed lazy to him, then he flogged him with rods, whips, a batog or a cat (multi-tailed whip).
It happened that his men robbed a traveler for food on the road, and then killed another. He did not bring them to court for this, but hid them with himself, announced to the government that they had fled; saying that there will be no profit for him if his peasant is whipped and sent to work for his crime. If one of the peasants stole something from him, he flogged him for laziness or for a daring or witty answer, but in addition he put stocks and shackles on his feet, and a slingshot around his neck. His partner had complete power over the women.
Her sons and daughters were her assistants in carrying out her orders. The sons themselves flogged the peasants with whips or cats. Women and girls were beaten on the cheeks or dragged by the hair by their daughters. Sons in free time they walked around the village or in the field to play and misbehave with girls and women, and none escaped their violence. The daughters, having no suitors, took out their boredom on the spinners, of whom they mutilated many.
In the village there was a peasant girl, not bad-looking, who was betrothed to a young peasant of the same village. The assessor's middle son liked her, and did everything possible to win her over; but the peasant woman remained faithful to her promise to the groom... The wedding was supposed to be on Sunday...”
The nobleman lured the girl into a cage and subjected her to wild violence. The unfortunate woman resisted, but two more brothers helped the scoundrel restrain her.
The groom found out about what had happened and broke the head of one of the villains with a stake. The father of the wicked sons called both the groom and his father to him for reprisal.
“How dare you... - said the old assessor, - raise your hand against your master? And even if he slept with your bride the night before your wedding, you should be grateful to him for that. You won't marry her; she will remain in my house, and you will be punished.”
“According to this decision, he ordered the groom to be mercilessly whipped with cats, giving him over to the will of his sons. He endured the beating bravely; He watched with a timid spirit as they began to carry out the same torture on his father. But he could not bear it when he saw that the master’s children wanted to take the bride into the house. The punishment took place in the yard. In an instant he snatched her from the hands of her abductors...”
The peasants stood up for the insulted bride and groom and beat the assessor himself and his three sons to death.
Radishchev's friend was supposed to judge the peasants and condemn them to eternal hard labor. Mercy and justice told him that only cruel treatment that lasted for years forced the peasants to such a desperate act of protest.
“A person is born into the world equal in everything else. We all have the same things, we all have reason and will...”
And again Radishchev, now through the mouth of his friend, asks the question: is there a law that is fair for all people, and not just for the rich and noble?
Is it possible to stand up for the serfs?
Sacrum - Yazhelbitsy
In the village of Kresttsy, the narrator witnesses how a noble father sends his sons into military service.
“Tell the truth, loving father, tell me, O true citizen! Wouldn’t you rather have your son strangled than let him go into service?”
The author sees army service as a breeding ground for veneration, stupid careerism and cruelty. Radishchev, through the mouth of a rather enlightened father of two adult sons, talks about education. He expresses the bold idea that children are not obliged to their parents either for birth or for, as he puts it, “nurturing.”
“When I treat a stranger, when I feed feathered chicks, when I give food to a dog that licks my right hand, is it for their sake that I do this? I find my own joy, amusement or benefit in this. It is with the same motivation that children are raised. Having been born into the world, you have become citizens of the society in which you live. It was my duty to feed you; for if he had allowed you to die untimely, he would have been a murderer. If I was more diligent (more diligent) in nurturing you than many are, then I followed the feeling of my heart.”
Father and mother did a lot to educate and raise their children. However, the noble nobleman does not see his merit in this either: “By praising you, they praise me. O my friends, sons of my heart!
I had many positions in relation to you, but you owe me nothing; I seek your friendship and your love.”
The father tried not to force the children too much, to give them freedom. However, he did not spoil them, he tried not to pamper them. Often the children walked barefoot and lightly dressed, and ate modestly: “Our labors were the best seasoning in our dinner. Remember with what pleasure we dined in a village unknown to us, without finding the way to the house. How tasty rye bread and country kvass seemed to us then!”
Sons going to the service do not know social tricks, do not know how to dance or compliment the ladies. However, their father instilled in them a love of art (music and painting), taught them to run, swim, shoot, ride, fencing, as well as simple peasant labor (plowing, milking a cow, and cooking cabbage soup and porridge).
“While teaching you information about the sciences, I did not leave behind introducing you to different peoples by teaching you foreign languages. But first of all, my concern was that you get to know your own, that you know how to express your thoughts verbally and in writing, so that this explanation would be at ease in you and would not produce sweat on your face. English language, and then in Latin I tried to make others better known to you.”
In Father's speech, Radishchev sets out his own views on the principles of education: they are in neatness, moderation, restraint, naturalness, closeness to nature, mercy.
Young people are warned against servility before the powerful, against self-interest and arrogance, and against brutality towards people dependent on them.
The judge of a person on the righteous path should be his own conscience.
In the chapter “Yazhelbitsy” Radishchev addresses a difficult but necessary topic. Carnal pleasures with slutty women lead many people to sexually transmitted diseases.
Radishchev warns the younger generation against intemperance.
Edrovo
In this chapter, the writer compares secular beauties with village girls. How much healthier, more natural, rosy and beautiful are those who grew up in nature, without courtly tricks!
“...I love rural women or peasant women because they do not yet know pretense, do not put on themselves the guise of feigned love, and when they love, they love with all their hearts and sincerely...”
The narrator especially liked one girl of about twenty, Anyuta, who told him:
“I don’t have a father, he died about two years ago, I have a mother and a little sister. Father left us five horses and three cows. There are also plenty of small livestock and birds; but there is no worker in the house. I was wooed into a rich house for a ten-year-old boy; but I didn't want to. What do I need in such a child? I won't love him. And when he comes in time, I will grow old, and he will hang around with strangers. Yes, they say that the father-in-law himself sleeps with his young daughters-in-law while his sons grow up. That’s why I didn’t want to go to his family. I want my own equal. I will love my husband, and he will love me, I have no doubt about that. I don’t like hanging out with guys, but I want to get married, master. Do you know why?
Last summer, a year ago, our neighbor’s son married my friend, with whom I always went to get-togethers. Her husband loves her, and she loves him so much that in the tenth month, after the wedding, she gave birth to his son.
Every evening she goes out to nurture him outside the gate. She can't look at him enough. It seems as if the boy really loves his mother. As she tells him: aha, aha, he will laugh. It brings me to tears every day; I would really like to have a boy like him...
The touched traveler learned that Anyuta has a loved one, whom she, however, cannot marry, since the dowry requires one hundred rubles - a huge amount for peasants.
The traveler offered the necessary money to Anyuta’s mother, but she refused.
“I compared this venerable mother with her sleeves rolled up behind a sauerkraut or with a milk pan next to a cow to the mothers of the city. The peasant woman did not want to take from me the immaculate, well-intentioned hundred rubles, which, in proportion to the wealth, should be five, ten, fifteen thousand or more for a colonel, adviser, major, general’s wife.”
Again, the comparison is not in favor of urban noblewomen.
It turns out that the wedding will take place after all. Ivan, Anyuta's fiancé, relies on his own hands - he will earn everything he lacks.
In the afterword, Radishchev is indignant against the custom of marrying primarily for property reasons: “If the husband is ten years old, and the wife is twenty-five, as is often the case in the peasantry; or if the husband is fifty, and the wife is fifteen or twenty years old, as happens in the nobility, can there be mutual pleasure of feelings?
Khotilov - Vydropusk
The chapters are written from the perspective of a traveler friend. They express revolutionary views on government structure, enslaving the majority of its citizens for the prosperity of a minority in power by birthright.
The author addresses all conquering kings, using the example of Alexander the Great: “The fruit of your conquest will be - do not flatter yourself - murder and hatred. You will remain a tormentor in the memory of posterity; You will be executed, knowing that your new slaves hate you and ask for your death.”
About the serfs, the author says: “Their field is alien, the fruit thereof does not belong to them. And for this reason they process it lazily; and they do not care whether in the midst of work (...) The field of slavery, not fully bearing fruit, is killing the citizens. There is nothing more harmful than the ever-present view of objects of slavery. On the one hand, arrogance will be born, and on the other, timidity. There can be no connection here other than violence.”
Radishchev directly calls for freeing the peasants from the shackles of slavery and restoring the natural equality of all.
Suggestions from Radishchev’s unknown friend regarding civil reforms:
“Separation of rural slavery and domestic slavery. “This last thing is destroyed first of all, and it is forbidden to take the villagers and everyone, according to the villages in the audit, into their homes. If a landowner takes a farmer into his house for services or work, then the farmer becomes free”;
- allow peasants to enter into marriage without requiring the consent of their master. Prohibit taking withdrawal money (the groom's payment for the bride if she is the serf of another landowner);
- allow the peasant to acquire real estate, that is, buy land;
- allow unrestricted acquisition of liberties by paying the master for vacation pay a known amount;
- prohibit arbitrary punishment without trial.
“Disappear the barbaric custom, destroy the power of the tigers!” - the legislator tells us.
“This will be followed by the complete abolition of slavery.”
Torzhok
This chapter is dedicated to free printing and opposition to harsh censorship laws.
“Censorship has been made the nanny of reason, wit, imagination, everything great and graceful...
The best way to encourage good is non-obstruction, permission, freedom of thought. Search is harmful in the realm of science: it thickens the air and blocks the breath.
A book that passes ten censorships before it reaches the world is not a book, but a work of the Holy Inquisition; often mutilated, flogged by a batog, gagged in the mouth, a prisoner, and a slave always... In the realms of truth, in the kingdom of thought and spirit, no earthly power can give decisions and should not...
Words are not always deeds, and thoughts are not crimes...
If a madman in his dream says not only in his heart, but in a loud voice: “There is no God,” a loud and hasty echo is heard in the mouths of all madmen: “There is no God, there is no God.” But what of that? Echo - sound; will hit the air, sway it and disappear. It rarely leaves a mark on the mind, and even then a weak one; never in the heart. God will always remain God, we feel even those who do not believe in him...
A printed book will not throw a schismatic into the fire, but a cunning example will. To prohibit tomfoolery is the same as to encourage it. Give him free rein; everyone will see what is stupid and what is smart. What is forbidden is what one wants.”
Radishchev in these chapters presents a historical and geographical excursion about censorship in America, France, and Germany.
Copper
This chapter depicts the sale of serfs.
“There are always many hunters for cheap things. The day and hour of the sale has arrived. Buyers are arriving. In the hall where it is produced, convicts stand motionless for sale.
An old man of about 75 years old, leaning on an elm club, wants to guess to whom fate will hand him over, who will close his eyes. He was with his master’s father on the Crimean campaign, under Field Marshal Minich; During the Frankfurt battle he carried his wounded master on his shoulders. Return home, he was the uncle of his young master. In infancy (the young master) he saved him from drowning, rushing after him into the river where he fell while crossing on a ferry, and saved him at the risk of his life. In his youth, he bought him out of prison, where he was imprisoned for debts when he was a non-commissioned officer in the guard.
An old woman of eighty years old, his wife, was the nurse of the mother of her young master; She was his nanny and had supervision of the house until the very hour she was brought to this marketplace.
Throughout her service, she did not steal anything from her masters, did not take any self-interest, never lied, and if sometimes she annoyed them, it was only with her honesty.
A woman of about forty, a widow, the nurse of her young master. And to this day she still feels some tenderness for him. Her blood flows in his veins.
She is his second mother, and he owes his belly more to her than to his natural mother. She conceived him in joy, and in his infancy she did not worry about him...”
The cruel owner sells his devoted serfs, who have repeatedly proven to him their not slavish, but human love.
He sells because he has squandered his property. He sells because he doesn’t see them as people. He sells because the structure of society has corrupted him and instilled a consumer attitude towards human dignity serfs.
Gorodnya
The recruitment kit amazes the impressionable soul of the traveler.
“In one crowd, an old woman of about fifty, holding a twenty-year-old guy by the head, screamed:
“My dear child, who are you leaving me with?” Who do you entrust your parents' home to? Our fields will be overgrown with grass, our hut will be covered with moss. I, your poor elderly mother, must wander around the world. Who will warm my decrepitude from the cold, who will shelter it from the heat? Who will give me something to drink and feed?
The recruit's bride also cried, because she would not have to become a wife and take care of their common children.
Russian army before military reform 1870 was replenished by recruiting from peasants, who were obliged to supply one recruit per hundred. You had to serve in the army for twenty-five years - best years life.
State and economic (serfs who passed from the monasteries to the economic college) peasants replaced themselves with serfs specially purchased from the landowners. Landowner speculation with serfs during recruitment was repeatedly prohibited, but was not eradicated.
The narrator was surprised by the joy of the other recruit. This man said that it was better to hope for happiness as a soldier than to disappear as a serf with an unmerciful master.
Old master raised the son of his uncle (serf teacher) on an equal basis with his own son. Moreover, the serf was more successful in science than the young master.
The master and his young servant were sent abroad for five years. Upon their return, the landowner promised to give the serf youth freedom. However, without waiting for his son to return, the good master died.
Recruit says:
“A week after our arrival in Moscow, my former master fell in love with a girl with a fair face, but who combined with physical beauty a stingy soul and a cruel and stern heart. Brought up in the arrogance of her origins, she considered only appearance, nobility, and wealth to be excellent. Two months later she became my master's wife and my mistress. Until that time, I did not feel a change in my condition; I lived in my master’s house as his companion. Although he did not order me anything, I sometimes warned him of his desires, feeling his power and my fate. As soon as the young lady crossed the threshold of the house in which she was appointed to be in charge, I felt the burden of my lot. The first evening after the wedding and the next day, on which I was introduced to her by her husband as his companion, she was busy with the ordinary concerns of a new marriage; but in the evening, when, in a rather crowded meeting, everyone came to the table and sat down for the first dinner of the newlyweds and I, as was my custom, sat down in my place at the lower end, then the new lady said quite loudly to her husband: if he wants her to sit at the table with guests, then I wouldn’t put a servant behind it.”
Thus began a series of humiliations. The educated and sensitive young man was punished physically (flogged with cats) and forced to suffer mentally. In the end, the guy was designated a recruit for his insolence and disobedience. The soldier's lot was preferable to him than serving under a cruel mistress.
And there were many more recruit tears: some cried for their old helpless parents, some for their young wife, and some for their native land.
Pawns
In a peasant hut, the narrator has breakfast with his own supplies. The housewife's son asks him for a piece of sugar - "boyar food."
The hostess addresses him reproachfully:
“Aren’t you drinking the tears of your peasants when they eat the same bread as us?”
The dough consisted of three-quarters chaff and one part wholemeal. After these words, the traveler, as if for the first time, examines the inside of the hut.
“Four walls, half covered, like the entire ceiling, with soot; the floor is full of cracks, at least an inch covered with mud; a stove without a chimney and smoke filling the hut every morning in winter and summer.
Instead of glass, there is a bubble in the windows.
From the dishes - two or three pots. And happy is that hut if in one of them there is empty (without meat) cabbage soup every day!
In the hut there is a trough for feeding pigs or calves, which sleep in the hut in winter. The air is stuffy, there is a burning candle in it - as if in fog.
Clothes include a tailored shirt, footwear with bast shoes for going out.
This is where the source of state surplus, strength, and power is rightly revered; but the weakness, shortcomings and abuses of the laws and their rough, so to speak, side are immediately visible. Here you can see the greed of the nobility, robbery, our torment and defenseless state of poverty.
Greedy animals, insatiable leeches, what do we leave for the peasant? What we cannot take away is air. Yes, just air. We often take away from him not only the gift of land, bread and water, but also the light itself. The law prohibits taking his life. But is it instantaneous? How many ways to take it away from him gradually! On the one hand - almost omnipotence; on the other hand, defenseless weakness. For the landowner in relation to the peasant is a legislator, a judge, an executor of his decision and, at his own request, a plaintiff, against whom the defendant does not dare to say anything,” - so from the description of the hut, Radishchev moves on to a direct accusation of the power of the nobles over the serfs.
The story ends with a chapter in which the work and genius of Lomonosov, the son of a simple fisherman who became a great scientist, is exalted.
Probably every schoolchild is interested in the summary of Radishchev’s story “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow.” The chapter “Lyuban” of this work is the fourth part of the prose work of the famous Russian writer. This is exactly what we will talk about in our article.
Moreover, from the summary of “Lyuban” it is clear that the author raises in his work serious and topical (especially at that time) issues. They show that the writer is not indifferent to the people around him, that he wants to change the world and make it better through his words. Moreover, a detailed analysis of “Lyuban” shows that the issues raised in this chapter are relevant to this day.
What can we learn from storytelling? What pressing topics did Radishchev raise in “Lyuban”? What does the author's worldview encourage readers to do? A detailed retelling of the chapter “Lyuban” will answer these and many other questions.
The childhood and youth of the writer
Alexander Nikolaevich Radishchev, who wrote the story “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow,” was born in August 1749, in a small village in the Saratov province. The family of the future literary figure was wealthy and eminent, had several estates and many serfs.
At first, the writer was raised by his father, a deeply religious and educated man who knew several languages and basic scientific disciplines. Then the boy was taken to the capital to live with his uncle (according to maternal line), where he learned science, learned languages and learned the rules of court life.
And at the age of twelve, the matured Sasha received the position of page under Catherine the Second and entered the St. Petersburg Page Corps, which trains secular servants of the royal person.
Four years later he was honored, along with some other young men, to go to Germany to study law there.
Exactly there future writer realized the importance of social and political life. It was there that he realized that he had to live not only on entertainment, but also on thoughts about the common people, about other people, about new transformations.
Service in St. Petersburg
Having returned to Russia, Alexander Nikolaevich, who had already experienced the world, began to look at the objects around him differently.
Since 1771, Radishchev has served in the public sphere, first in the Senate as a titular adviser, then as chief auditor on the staff of Bruce, the general-in-chief. After a short break due to his marriage, he returns to service again, but to the board of trade and industrial affairs, where he meets Count Vorontsov. This acquaintance played important role in the life of the writer - Alexander Romanovich, out of old friendship, will many times help his less well-born comrade.
Then Radishchev got a job at the city customs, where ten years later he took the place of chief.
Literary and political sensation
Around the 1780s, Alexander Nikolaevich began to work on his most famous work- “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow.” Radishchev put his whole soul into this work, the idea of which he had been carrying around since his return from Germany in 1771.
In the spring of 1790, Alexander Nikolaevich first printed it in his home printing house. Thus, the most criticized and most topical book of that time was published.
The book immediately began to sell out and delighted many leading people of the time.
What happened after the release of the work
However, this could not go unpunished. Reflections on serfdom, descriptions of cruel humiliations and inhuman abuse to which serfs were subjected, a bold denunciation of the order existing in those days - all this could not but entail sad consequences not only for the work itself, but also for its author.
Empress Catherine, reading “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow,” made notes in the margins and ridiculed not only the writer, but also the situations themselves described in the narrative. She called the story outrageous and offensive, destroying peace and diminishing respect for authority, filled with harmful ideas and inciting ordinary people to revolt.
Radishchev was arrested and tried. He was sentenced to death penalty as a man who attempted the life of the empress and was plotting treason against his homeland. However, Catherine changed her anger to mercy, replacing the death sentence with a ten-year deportation to Siberia.
The book's circulation was almost completely destroyed.
Life after pardon
Six years after his exile, Alexander Nikolaevich was returned from exile by Catherine’s son, Paul the First, with the condition that his permanent place of residence would be a small estate in the Kaluga region.
Five years after his return, immediately after the accession to the throne of Alexander the First, Radishchev was summoned to Tsarist Petersburg as an experienced statesman to participate in the drafting of new laws and the Constitution. Russian Empire. Of course, it was not by chance that such an honor was entrusted to the exiled writer - Count Vorontsov put in a good word for him before the emperor.
The mystery of the death of a statesman
Until now, scientists and literary scholars cannot figure out the cause of the writer’s death. The matter is complicated by the fact that Alexander Nikolaevich’s grave has been lost.
According to the chronicle, there are at least two versions of his death:
- Suicide. Radishchev and the Chairman of the Commission, Count Zavadovsky, did not agree on the provisions of the law drawn up by the writer. Zavadovsky severely condemned the writer for his excessive liberalism and hinted at his Siberian exile as a threat. Excited and frightened, Alexander Nikolaevich hurried home, where he took the poison with his own hands and died in terrible agony.
- Accident. Radishchev accidentally drank a poisonous solution intended for household purposes. Since his health was undermined by exile, the writer’s body was unable to overcome the poison, and Radishchev died surrounded by his family.
- Official version. According to the burial data, Alexander Nikolaevich died of consumption (or tuberculosis).
It was very important to carry out a short excursion into the biography of Radishchev, since his personal life and his own worldviews were reflected in the story “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow.” The chapter “Lyubani” is a vivid example of the theme of the entire work.
However, before getting acquainted with it, let's briefly find out what impact Radishchev's work had on subsequent generations.
Social message for centuries
It is noteworthy that the influence that the story had on further history Russian Empire, truly impressive. Many Decembrists admitted during interrogations that they gleaned their first freedom-loving thoughts from the pages of a repressed book.
Radishchev's contemporaries, such as the historian and writer Karamzin and the publicist and critic Vyazemsky, argued that Alexander Nikolaevich was not just a free-thinking person, but also virtuous, sincere and truthful.
Opinions of famous writers
Pushkin spoke of Radishchev as an amateur, criticizing some of his fanaticism that reigns on the pages of the story. Also, the author’s exaggerations, the far-fetched plot, and caricature caused a sharp assessment of the great poet.
Dostoevsky considered the idea of the work fragmentary and unfinished, copied from the works of French enlighteners.
What kind of work is this - “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow”? Before reading the summary of “Lyuban” (the fourth chapter of the story that interests us), let’s learn more about the work itself.
Briefly about the main work
“Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow” was written in a genre popular at that time, called sentimental travel. Strictly adhering to the European canon, Radishchev even gave the chapters titles that corresponded not to the essence of the topics raised in them, but to the names of cities and villages. That is why the censorship allowed the story to pass without resorting to reading it. They thought that the work contained brief information about the Russian hinterlands.
The theme of “Travel from St. Petersburg to Moscow”, however, like the theme of the chapter “Lyuban”, is the situation of serfs in Rus', their hardships and enslavement. The book exposed the ruthlessness and atrocities of the landowners, who shamelessly exploited and oppressed the peasants, realizing themselves with impunity.
The work also raised the question of whether some people have the right to enslave others? Why is it customary that someone serves, and someone lives in luxury?
Moreover, in his work Radishchev raised the topic of not only the powerless people, but also the immorality of the autocracy. Condemnation absolute monarchy a red thread runs through all the pages of the story.
What is the story “Lyuban” by Radishchev? Let's find out.
Briefly about the narrative of the section
In the center of the chapter “Lyuban” is a dialogue with a peasant conducted by an idle and rich traveler. What could people so different in mentality and social status talk about? From the summary of “Lyuban” it is clear when this dialogue took place and what was its main topic.
Hot Summer. Plowing time. Holiday. This is how the author, on behalf of his hero, describes the circumstances that served as the reason for his dialogue with the peasant.
After a long and uncomfortable journey, a tired traveler (a wealthy aristocratic landowner) decides to walk along the road to take a break from the shaking in the wagon. Suddenly he notices a peasant plowing quickly and carefully, from which he concluded that at the moment the man was working not for the master, but for himself.
The traveler was surprised that the peasant was plowing on a Christian holiday, so he decided to ask why he was doing this.
From the plowman’s answer it follows that he is a sincere Orthodox believer, but he does not consider himself guilty of violating church rules. God, as the worker himself notes, is on his side, since he needs to feed his family.
Then the traveler asks why he plows on a holiday, and even at noon. Can't he work another day?
Such ignorance of the traveler suggests that he had not previously thought about the life of ordinary people, their hardships and problems. Therefore, further, in his story “Lyubani,” Radishchev cites a short history peasant life and backbreaking labor.
The serf has a large family - six children, of whom the eldest is only ten years old. He must dress them, put them in shoes, feed them, and also pay the master a dues.
Working for a landowner is hard - six days a week, from early morning until late evening. There is only a small amount of time and energy left for your family and your needs - at night and on Sundays and holidays.
The peasant also points out another social problem - the disunity of the common people, dividing them into forced and free, as well as another horror and arbitrariness of corvée - the sale of people or renting them out to another owner.
This is the story of the serf. Answering the master briefly and monosyllabically, he continued his hard, exhausting work in the field.
Author's thoughts
Only by thoughtfully reading the peasant’s words can one understand the meaning of “Lyuban”, put into the story by the writer himself. Moreover, Radishchev gives his own thoughts about what is happening among the people.
After a conversation with the serf, the traveler was inflamed with righteous anger against all the cruel landowners-enslavers. And at the same time, he realized that he himself was also wrong, since he was using the labor of others, practically powerless peasants.
And although the main character does not flog his people and takes care of their basic needs, he is still unfair to them, believing that he has the right to punish for wrongdoing or slap them in the face.
Remembering the details of his communication with his valet Petrusha, the traveler feels ashamed that he allowed himself some liberties and lordly manners.
“Lyubani” and modernity
And although now there is no corvee and quitrent, the questions raised in the story are still relevant and pressing. Why is there such a huge gap between rich and poor? Who gave the right to some to put themselves above others? Will the time come when all people will be equal not only before God, but also before each other?
According to reviews of “Lyuban”, these questions require prompt resolution and answer. At one time, “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow” left an indelible impression on the hearts and minds of reflective people. The work inspired them to take action and bring about social and political change.
Can we achieve universal equality and justice by learning from the negative examples of the past? Who knows.
Humanity is developing and moving forward. The landowner system has already sunk deep into oblivion. We may soon no longer hear about social injustice or racial inequality.
"Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow." Brief summary of the novel in chapters by A.M.K. The narrative opens with a letter to friend Alexei Mikhailovich Kutuzov, in which Radishchev explains his feelings that forced him to write this book. This is a kind of blessing for work. Departure Having said goodbye to friends, the author-narrator leaves, suffering from separation. He dreams that he is alone, but, fortunately, there was a pothole, he woke up, and then they arrived at the station. Sofia Having taken the travel document, our traveler goes to the commissar for horses, but they don’t give them horses, they say no, although there are up to twenty nags in the stable. Twenty kopecks had an effect “on the coachmen.” They harnessed the troika behind the commissar's back, and the traveler set off further. The cab driver sings a mournful song, and the traveler reflects on the character of the Russian man. If a Russian wants to disperse his melancholy, he goes to a tavern; whatever doesn’t suit him, he gets into a fight. The traveler asks God why he turned away from people? Tosna Discussion about a disgusting road that cannot be overcome even in summer rains. In the station hut, the traveler meets a failed writer - a nobleman who wants to sell him his literary work "about the loss of privileges by the nobles." The traveler gives him copper pennies, and offers to give the “labor” by weight to the peddlers so that they can use the paper for “wrapping”, since it is not suitable for anything else. Lyubani The Traveler sees a peasant plowing on a holiday and wonders if he is a schismatic? The peasant is Orthodox, but he is forced to work on Sunday, because... goes to corvée six days a week. The peasant says that he has three sons and three daughters, the eldest is only ten years old. To keep his family from starving, he has to work at night. He works diligently for himself, but only barely for his master. He is the only worker in the family, but the master has many. The peasant envies the quitrent and state peasants, their lives are easier, then he re-harnesses the horses so that they can rest, while he himself works without rest. The traveler mentally curses all the exploiting landowners and himself for offending his Petrushka when he was drunk. The Miraculous Traveler meets with his university friend Chelishchev, who told about his adventure in the stormy Baltic, where he almost died because an official refused to send help, saying: “It’s not my position.” Now Chelishchev is leaving the city - “a host of lions”, so as not to see these villains. Spasskaya field The traveler got caught in the rain and asked to go into the hut to dry off. There he hears his husband's story about an official who loves "oysters" (oysters). For fulfilling his whim - delivering oysters - he gives ranks and awards from the state treasury. The rain has stopped. The traveler continued his journey with a companion who had asked for it. A fellow traveler tells his story of how he was a merchant, trusted dishonest people, was put on trial, his wife died during childbirth, which began due to worries a month earlier. A friend helped this unfortunate man escape. The traveler wants to help the fugitive, in a dream he imagines himself as an all-powerful ruler, whom everyone admires. This dream reveals to him the wanderer Straight-View, she removes the thorns from his eyes that prevent him from seeing the truth. The author states that the tsar was known among the people as “a deceiver, a hypocrite, a pernicious comedian.” Radishchev shows the discrepancy between Catherine's words and deeds; the ostentatious splendor, the lush, decorative façade of the empire hides behind it terrible scenes of oppression. Pryovzora turns to the king with words of contempt and anger: “Know that you are... the first robber, the first traitor of general silence, the fiercest enemy, directing his anger at the inside of the weak.” Radishchev shows that there are no good kings; they pour out their favors only on the unworthy. Podberezye The traveler meets a young man going to St. Petersburg to study with his uncle. Here are the young man's thoughts about the detrimental lack of an education system for the country. He hopes that the descendants will be happier in this regard, because... will be able to study. Novgorod The traveler admires the city, remembering its heroic past and how Ivan the Terrible set out to destroy the Novgorod Republic. The author is indignant: what right did the tsar have to “appropriate Novgorod”? The traveler then goes to his friend, Karp Dementich, who married his son. Everyone sits at the table together (host, young people, guest). The traveler draws portraits of his hosts. And the merchant talks about his affairs. Just as he was “launched around the world,” now the son is trading. Armored Women The traveler goes to the sacred hill and hears the menacing voice of the Almighty: “Why did you want to know the secret?” “What are you looking for, foolish child?” Where the “great city” once was, the traveler sees only poor shacks. In Zaitsev, the Traveler meets his friend Krestyankin, who once served and then retired. Krestyankin, a very conscientious and warm-hearted man, was the chairman of the criminal chamber, but left his position, seeing the futility of his efforts. Krestyankin talks about a certain nobleman who began his career as a court stoker, and tells about the atrocities of this unscrupulous man. The peasants could not stand the bullying of the landowner's family and killed everyone. The peasant justified the “guilty” who were driven to the point of murder by the landowner. No matter how hard Krestyankin fought for a fair solution to this case, nothing worked. They were executed. And he resigned so as not to be an accomplice to this crime. The traveler receives a letter telling about a strange wedding between “a 78-year-old young man and a 62-year-old young woman,” a certain widow who was engaged in pimping, and in her old age decided to marry the baron. He marries for money, and in her old age she wants to be called “Your Highness.” The author says that without the Buryndas the light would not have lasted even three days; he is outraged by the absurdity of what is happening. Sacrats Seeing the separation of a father from his sons going to work, the traveler recalls that out of a hundred serving nobles, ninety-eight “become rakes.” He grieves that he too will soon have to part with his eldest son. The author’s reasoning leads him to the conclusion: “Tell the truth, dear father, tell me, true citizen! Don’t you want to strangle your son rather than let him go into service? Because in the service everyone cares about their own pockets, and not about the good of their homeland.” . The landowner, calling on the traveler to witness how hard it is for him to part with his sons, tells them that they do not owe him anything, but must work for the good of the fatherland, for this he raised and cared for them, taught them sciences and forced them to think. He admonishes his sons not to stray from the true path, not to lose their pure and high souls. Yazhelbitsy Driving past the cemetery, the traveler sees a heartbreaking scene when a father, rushing at his son’s coffin, does not allow him to be buried, crying that they are not burying him with his son in order to stop his torment. For he is guilty that his son was born weak and sick and suffered so much as long as he lived. The traveler mentally reasons that he, too, probably passed on to his sons diseases with the vices of his youth. Valdai This ancient town is known for the amorous affection of unmarried women. The traveler says that everyone knows “Valdai bagels and shameless girls.” Next, he tells the legend of a sinful monk who drowned in a lake during a storm while swimming to his beloved. Edrovo The traveler sees many elegant women and girls. He admires their healthy appearance, reproaching the noblewomen for disfiguring their figures by wearing corsets, and then dying from childbirth, because they have been spoiling their bodies for years for the sake of fashion. The traveler talks to Annushka, who at first behaves sternly, and then, getting into conversation, said that her father died, she lives with her mother and sister, and wants to get married. But they ask a hundred rubles for the groom. Vanyukha wants to go to St. Petersburg to earn money. But the traveler says: “Don’t let him go there, there he will learn to drink and get out of the habit of peasant labor.” He wants to give money, but the family won’t take it. He is amazed by their nobility. Khotilov Project in the future Written on behalf of another traveler, even more progressive in his views than Radishchev. Our traveler finds papers left by his brother. Reading them, he finds arguments similar to his thoughts about the harmfulness of slavery, the evil nature of landowners, and the lack of enlightenment. Vyshny Volochok The traveler admires the locks and man-made canals. He talks about a landowner who treated peasants like slaves. They worked for him all day, and he gave them only meager food. The peasants did not have their own plots or livestock. And this “barbarian” flourished. The author calls on the peasants to destroy the estate and tools of this nonhuman, who treats them like oxen. Vydropusk (again written from someone else's notes) Project of the future The author says that the kings imagined themselves to be gods, surrounded themselves with a hundred servants and imagine that they are useful to the fatherland. But the author is sure that this order needs to be changed. The future is education. Only then will there be justice when people become equal. Torzhok The Traveler meets a man who wants to open a free printing house. What follows is a discussion about the harmfulness of censorship. “What harm will it do if books are printed without a police stamp?” The author claims that the benefits of this are obvious: “Rulers are not free to separate the people from the truth.” The author in “A Brief Narrative of the Origin of Censorship” says that censorship and the Inquisition have the same roots. And tells the history of printing and censorship in the West. And in Russia... in Russia, what happened with censorship, he promises to tell “another time.” The Copper Traveler sees a round dance of young women and girls. And then there is a description of the shameful public sale of peasants. A 75-year-old man is waiting for someone to give him to. His 80-year-old wife was the nurse of the mother of a young master who mercilessly sold his peasants. There is also a 40-year-old woman, the master’s wet nurse, and the entire peasant family, including the baby, going under the hammer. It is scary for a traveler to see this barbarity. Tver A traveler listens to the arguments of a tavern interlocutor "during lunch" about the poetry of Lomonosov, Sumarokov and Trediakovsky. The interlocutor reads excerpts from Radishchev’s ode “Liberty,” allegedly written by him, which he is taking to St. Petersburg to publish. The traveler liked the poem, but he did not have time to tell the author about it, because... he left quickly. Gorodnya Here the traveler sees the recruiting process, hears the screams and cries of the peasants, and learns about the many violations and injustices happening at the same time. The traveler listens to the story of the servant Vanka, who was raised and taught together with a young master, called Vanyusha, and sent abroad not as a slave, but as a comrade. But the old master favored him, and the young master hated him and was jealous of his success. The old man died. The young master got married, and his wife hated Ivan, humiliated him in every possible way, and then decided to marry him to a dishonored courtyard girl. Ivan called the landowner an “inhuman woman,” and then he was sent to become a soldier. Ivan is happy about this fate. Then the traveler saw three peasants whom the landowner sold as recruits, because... he needed a new carriage. The author is amazed at the lawlessness happening around. The Zavidovo Traveler sees a warrior in a grenadier's hat, who, demanding horses, threatens the headman with a whip. By order of the headman, fresh horses were taken away from the traveler and given to the grenadier. The traveler is outraged by this order of things. What will you do? Klin the Traveler listens to the mournful song of the blind man, and then gives him a ruble. The old man is surprised by the generous alms. He's more excited about the birthday cake than the money. For the ruble can lead someone into temptation, and it will be stolen. Then the traveler gives the old man his scarf from his neck. Pawns The Traveler treats the child with sugar, and his mother tells her son: “Take the master’s food.” The traveler is surprised why this is bar food. The peasant woman replies that she has nothing to buy sugar with, but they drink it at the bar because they don’t get the money themselves. The peasant woman is sure that these are the tears of slaves. The traveler saw that the owner's bread consisted of three parts of chaff and one part of unsown flour. He looked around for the first time and was horrified by the wretched surroundings. With anger, he exclaims: “Cruel-hearted landowner! Look at the children of the peasants under your control!” He calls on the exploiters to come to their senses. Black mud The traveler meets the wedding train, but is very sad, because... They are going down the aisle under the compulsion of their master. A Word about Lomonosov The author, passing by the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, entered it in order to honor the grave of the great Lomonosov with his presence. He recalls the life path of a great scientist striving for knowledge. Lomonosov eagerly studied everything that could be learned at that time and studied poetry. The author comes to the conclusion that Lomonosov was great in all matters that he touched. And now it’s Moscow! Moscow! "Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow." Summary of the novel Having gone to Moscow after dinner with friends, the hero woke up only at the next post station - Sofia. Having difficulty waking up the caretaker, he demanded horses, but was refused due to the night time. I had to give the coachmen some vodka, they harnessed it, and the journey continued. In Tosna, the hero meets a lawyer who was engaged in composing ancient genealogies for young nobles. On the way from Tosny to Lyuban, the traveler sees a peasant who was plowing “with great diligence,” despite the fact that it was Sunday. The plowman said that six days a week his family cultivates the master’s land and, in order not to die of hunger, he is forced to work on holidays, even though this is a sin. The hero reflects on the cruelty of the landowners and at the same time reproaches himself for the fact that he also has a servant over whom he has power. In Chudov, the hero is caught up by his friend Ch. and tells why he had to quickly leave St. Petersburg. Ch., for fun, sailed on a twelve-oar boat from Kronstadt to Sisterbeck. Along the way, a storm broke out, and the boat was pinched between two rocks by the raging waves. It was filling with water, and it seemed that death was inevitable. But two brave rowers made an attempt to climb over the rocks and swim to the shore, which was a mile and a half away. One succeeded, and, having got ashore, he ran to the house of the local chief so that he could urgently dispatch boats to rescue those remaining. But the chief deigned to rest, and the sergeant, his subordinate, did not dare to wake him up. When, through the efforts of others, the unfortunate people were nevertheless saved, Ch. tried to reassure the boss, but he said: “That’s not my position.” Indignant, Ch. “almost spat in his face and walked out.” Finding no sympathy for his actions among his St. Petersburg acquaintances, he decided to leave this city forever. On the road from Chudov to Spasskaya Polest, a fellow traveler sits down with the hero and tells him his sad story. Having trusted his partner in ransom matters, he was deceived, lost his entire fortune and was put on criminal trial. His wife, experiencing what had happened, gave birth ahead of schedule and three days later she died, and the premature baby also died. Friends, seeing that they had come to take him into custody, put the unfortunate man in a wagon and told him to go “wherever his eyes looked.” The hero was touched by what his fellow traveler told him, and he thinks about how to bring this case to the attention of the supreme power, “for it can only be impartial.” Realizing that he is unable to help the unfortunate man, the hero imagines himself supreme ruler, whose state seems to be flourishing, and everyone sings its praises. But then the wanderer of Straight-Gaze removes the thorn from the ruler’s eyes, and he sees that his reign was unrighteous, that bounties were poured out on the rich, flatterers, traitors, and unworthy people. He understands that power is the duty to uphold the law and justice. But all this turned out to be just a dream. At Podberezye station the hero meets a seminarian who complains about modern training. The hero reflects on science and the work of the writer, whose task he sees is enlightenment and praise of virtue. Arriving in Novgorod, the hero remembers that this city in ancient times had popular rule, and questions the right of Ivan the Terrible to annex Novgorod. “But what is right when there is force?” - he asks. Distracted from his thoughts, the hero goes to dine with his friend Karp Dementievich, formerly a merchant, and now an eminent citizen. A conversation turns to trade matters, and the traveler understands that the introduced bill of exchange system does not guarantee honesty, but, on the contrary, contributes to easy enrichment and theft. In Zaitsev, at the post office, the hero meets an old friend of Mr. Krestyankin, who served in the criminal chamber. He resigned, realizing that in this position he could not bring any benefit to the fatherland. He saw only cruelty, bribery, injustice. A peasant told a story about a cruel landowner whose son raped a young peasant woman. The girl's groom, defending the bride, broke the rapist's head. There were several other peasants with the groom, and according to the code of the criminal chamber, the narrator should have sentenced all of them to death or lifelong hard labor. He tried to justify the peasants, but none of the local nobles supported him, and he was forced to resign. In Krestsy, the hero witnesses the separation of a father from his children going off to serve. The father reads instructions to them about life rules, calls for being virtuous, fulfilling the requirements of the law, restraining passions, and not subservient to anyone. The hero shares his father’s thoughts that the power of parents over children is insignificant, that the union between parents and children should be “based on the tender feelings of the heart” and that a father cannot see his son as his slave. In Yazhelbitsy, driving past the cemetery, the hero sees that a burial is taking place there. The father of the deceased is sobbing at the grave, saying that he is the murderer of his son, since he “poured poison into his beginning.” The hero thinks he hears his condemnation. Having indulged in lust in his youth, he suffered from a “stenchful disease” and is afraid that it will pass on to his children. Reflecting on who is causing the spread of the “stenchful disease,” the traveler blames the state for this, which opens the way to vices and protects public women. In Valdai, the hero recalls the legend of a monk of the Iversky Monastery who fell in love with the daughter of a Valdai resident. Just as Leander swam across the Hellespont, so this monk swam across Lake Valdai to meet his beloved. But one day the wind rose, the waves raged, and in the morning the monk’s body was found on a distant shore. In Edrovo, the hero meets a young peasant girl Anyuta, talks with her about her family and fiance. He is surprised how much nobility there is in the way of thinking rural residents . Wanting to help Anyuta get married, he offers her fiance money to get married. But Ivan refuses to take them, saying: “I, master, have two hands, I will run the house with them.” The hero reflects on marriage, condemning the still existing customs when an eighteen-year-old girl could be married to a ten-year-old child. Equality is the basis of family life, he believes. On the way to Khotilovo, the hero is visited by thoughts about the injustice of serfdom. The fact that one person can enslave another he calls a “brutal custom”: “enslavement is a crime,” he says. Only those who cultivate the land have rights to it. And a state where two-thirds of citizens are deprived of civil rank cannot “be called blessed.” Radishchev’s hero understands that forced work produces less fruit, and this prevents the “reproduction of the people.” In front of the postal station, he picks up a paper that expresses the same thoughts, and learns from the postman that the last person passing through was one of his friends. He apparently forgot his essays at the post station, and the hero takes the forgotten papers for some reward. They defined a whole program for the liberation of peasants from serfdom, and also contained a provision for the destruction of court officials. In Torzhok, the hero meets a man who sends a petition to St. Petersburg for permission to establish a printing press in the city, free from censorship. They talk about the harmfulness of censorship, which “like a nanny, leads a child on a leash,” and this “child,” that is, the reader, will never learn to walk (think) independently. Society itself must serve as censor: it either recognizes the writer or rejects it, just as recognition for a theatrical performance is provided by the audience, and not by the theater director. Here the author, referring to a notebook received by the hero from a person he met, talks about the history of the emergence of censorship. On the way to Mednoe, the traveler continues to read the papers of his friend. It talks about the auctions that take place if a landowner goes bankrupt. And among other property, people are being auctioned. An old man of seventy-five, the uncle of a young master, an old woman of eighty, his wife, a nurse, a widow of forty, a young woman of eighteen, her daughter and granddaughter of the elderly, her baby - they all do not know what fate awaits them, into whose hands they will fall. The conversation about Russian versification that the hero has with a friend at a tavern table brings them back to the topic of liberty. A friend reads excerpts from his ode with that title. In the village of Gorodnya, a recruitment process is taking place, which caused the sobs of the crowd of people. Mothers, wives, brides are crying. But not all recruits are unhappy with their fate. One “master’s man,” on the contrary, is glad to get rid of the power of his masters. He was raised by a kind master along with his son, and traveled abroad with him. But the old master died, and the young one got married, and the new lady put the slave in his place. In Pawns, the hero surveys a peasant hut and is surprised by the poverty that reigns here. The housewife asks him for a piece of sugar for the child. The author, in a lyrical digression, addresses the landowner with a condemning speech: “Hard-hearted landowner! look at the children of the peasants under your control. They are almost naked." He promises him God's punishment, because he sees that there is no righteous judgment on earth. The “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow” ends with “A Word about Lomonosov.” The hero refers to the fact that these notes were given to him by the “Parnassian judge” with whom he dined in Tver. The author focuses on the role of Lomonosov in the development of Russian literature, calling him “the first in the path of Russian literature.” Analysis of chapters from “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow” by A.N. Radishcheva From chapter to chapter, the author of the book introduces the reader to certain vices, abuses and crimes of the nobles - landowners and government officials, without forgetting the official Orthodox Church, serving the government and landowners. There are also new merchants here, but they are “ dark kingdom”, is also corrupted, despotic, illiterate and selfish, in no way similar to the European advanced “third estate”, which has already led the American and French revolutions. At the same time, Radishchev intersperses these scenes with sympathetic portraits of peasants and pictures of folk life. His journey has not only an ethnographic, but also a political, even propaganda goal. The author of the book, a lawyer by profession, who has worked extensively in the Senate and other government judicial institutions, wants, with the help of his instructive trip from new capital in ancient times to introduce readers to his very deep and caring knowledge of feudal Russia, tormented by noble abuses and bureaucratic lawlessness. Radishchev in the chapter “Spasskaya Polest” rises to bold criticism of the autocracy, which allowed all this and silently approved, and openly justifies the people’s cruel revenge on the oppressors, the murders of landowners and peasant revolt. All this caused the understandable indignation of Empress Catherine II. Of course, the traveler in Radishchev’s book sees various cities and localities, tells about them, about the people he met, about folk customs and interesting cases(chapter “Valdai”), the life and character of the peasants, and his serfs are morally superior to landowners and officials. There is also an inserted utopian chapter “Khotilov” in his journey. But the main thing is to build in the chapters of “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow” characteristic examples of violation by people of power of various ranks of their official duties, laws and simply the rules of universal morality. Already in the chapter “Sofia” there is a lazy and deceitful postal worker who does not give the author horses and thereby violating his official duty. In the chapter “Lyuban”, the traveler meets a peasant cheerfully and diligently plowing his own, not a lord’s, field on Sunday, that is, on a holiday, which was considered a sin by Orthodox Christians, but the peasants themselves did not consider labor a sin. Here, for the first time, we are talking about the oppression of the peasants by the master, the landowner, who six days a week drives the peasants into corvée, that is, into forced, joyless work on their lands, and sends village women and girls to pick mushrooms and berries for their farms. The theme of inequality, oppression, social injustice, the impossibility of the peasants to appeal to justice appears, the author’s anger is expressed. The story about the shipwreck in the chapter “Miracle” is also emotional, because the naval commander did not provide adequate assistance to those in distress, they did it ordinary soldiers who gave them their boats. This scene is important detailed description feelings and thoughts of perishing and the author’s growing anger against hardened officials who have forgotten their duty: “Now I will say goodbye to the city forever. I will never enter this home of the tigers. Their only joy is to gnaw at each other; Their joy is to torment the weak to the point of exhaustion and to servile the authorities.” Even the famous description of a peasant hut (chapter “Pawns”), which Pushkin liked so much, allows Radishchev to reproach the serf owners and the authorities with popular poverty: “Here one can see the greed of the nobility, robbery, our torment and defenseless state of poverty.” But the landowner Radishchev knew very well that such a dirty hut with cracks in the floor was built for himself by a careless peasant from the lordly forest allocated to him, the nobility had nothing to do with it. From the simple and funny story of an unscrupulous official who loves to eat expensive imported oysters and calmly abuses them for the sake of his innocent passion official position (head of Lyuban) and spending considerable money on it public funds, the author moves on to much more serious cases of lawlessness and persecution. There is even talk of the lawless destruction by Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich of the liberties of the ancient Novgorod Republic, and the tsar, in accordance with the ideas of the enlighteners, was condemned as a violator of the natural right of the Novgorodians to these liberties and independence. The sale of serfs, described with such indignation and passion in the chapter “Copper,” exposed the very inhuman and illegal essence of the power of the landowners. The picture of the recruitment in the chapter “Gorodnya” also called for indignation and prophesied an uprising of slaves who would give up their children forever to become soldiers. In the chapter “Zaitsovo,” the traveler tells the story of a landowner who oppressed and humiliated his peasants so cruelly and ingeniously that they killed him and his adult sons. The author is on the side of the peasants, recognizes their act as justified, in defense of their loved ones and rights, and speaks prophetic words about the Russian rebellion: “The Russian people are very patient and endure to the extreme; but when he puts an end to his patience, then nothing can hold him back, lest he succumb to cruelty.” Here the key speech for the entire book is made about the natural equality of all people, about their natural right to break laws in the name of their own good and freedom, about their right to revenge, rebellion and even murder of their oppressors. The king is only a servant of the law, he rules by the general consent of the people , concluded a social contract with him according to the famous idea of Rousseau. It’s a disaster if he is blind, has forgotten about his duty and truth, and condones the crimes and abuses of his favorites and court flatterers, as shown in the author’s dream (“Spasskaya Polest”), with with good reason perceived by Catherine as a satire on her wasteful, indulgent reign of abuse and outright theft of nobles. Idea reasonable selfishness, expressed here by Radishchev and later developed in Chernyshevsky’s novel, was that people can comply with state laws and submit to the power of the monarch as long as the laws correspond to their desires and goals, serve the benefit of the individual, and do not violate their natural rights. In a class-based monarchical state, such an idea looked rebellious and criminal, and therefore Catherine called Radishchev a rebel. He, a Russian nobleman, lawyer, high-ranking government official and wealthy landowner, legally and morally justified the peasant rebellion: “They are waiting for an opportunity and an hour. The bell strikes. And behold, the destruction of atrocity spreads quickly. We will see sword and poison around us. Death and burning will be promised to us for our severity and inhumanity.” Condemned and forgotten about the person and public benefit autocracy. The anti-tyrant ode “Liberty,” written in “strong verse” (Pushkin) and placed in the chapter “Tver,” calls for revenge on the kings, their execution by the verdict of the people’s court. Further, Radishchev develops his bold thoughts into a whole system of revolutionary ideas. He, a Russian nobleman and high-ranking official, is against the state and military service young nobles, against conquest and war as criminal bloodshed, against state and spiritual (that is, church) censorship, against court parasites, against the forced recruitment of recruits into the army, the abuse of priests - in a word, against the entire system of lawlessness and oppression of man by man, which lay in the basis of autocracy, serfdom, and the Russian military-feudal state. And all this was not only thought and said to them, but also written and printed, the book was sent out and put on sale. Already Pushkin was amazed at Radishchev’s civic and human courage: “We cannot help but recognize him as a criminal with an extraordinary spirit; a political fanatic, mistaken of course, but acting with amazing selflessness and a kind of knightly conscience.”
Radishchev "Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow" - essay ""Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow" in the artistic and ideological context of the era"
For many generations of Russian readers, the name of Radishchev is surrounded by an aura of martyrdom: for writing “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow,” the author was sentenced to death, which was commuted by Catherine II to ten years of exile to Siberia. Her successors on the throne restored Radishchev to his rights, but he did not change his views and, not finding sympathy for them from the authorities, committed suicide in 1802. For the Russian revolutionary intelligentsia of the 19th century, he became a legendary figure; his views were seen as radical humanism and depth in revealing the social problems of Russian society at the end of the 18th century. After the revolution of 1917, home-grown Marxist literary critics saw in Radishchev even the founder of socialism in Russia and the first Russian materialist, however, in these more than bold judgments they clearly followed in the footsteps of V.I. Lenin, who put Radishchev “the first in the ranks of Russian revolutionaries, defiant The Russian people have a sense of national pride.” In order to bring Radishchev back to the modern Russian reader, it is necessary to remove layer by layer of ideological and other husk from his name and try to impartially evaluate him philosophical views, literary and poetic creativity.
Although Radishchev wrote poetry, poems, and also composed a philosophical treatise “On Man, His Mortality and Immortality,” in the memory of his descendants he remained only the author of “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow.” This work received a very unflattering description from A.S. Pushkin, who wrote that it was “the reason for his misfortune and glory, it is a very mediocre work, not to mention even the barbaric style.”
Pushkin, who is rightfully considered the creator of Russian literary language, there were quite good reasons for such a harsh sentence.
Is it possible to unconditionally assert that the lightness, smoothness, flexibility, smooth fluidity and grace of Pushkin’s language is evidence of his undoubted dignity in comparison with the language of Derzhavin, Karamzin and Radishchev? Perhaps those who consider Pushkin’s style to be lightweight, and the thought expressed in his characteristic free, uninhibited form, to be flat and simplified, are right? Of course not, but to justify Radishchev with his “barbaric style” we cite two excerpts from his poem “Ode to My Friend”:
The winged century flies, my friend,
Everything falls into the bottomless eternity.
This day, this hour and this moment has passed,
And nothing will ever come back.
Beauty and youth have faded,
Hair covered with whiteness,
Where are the sweet hours now?
That spirit and body have always fascinated?
This is the fate of everything in the world:
Not always on the bush seduces
Masculine pink flower,
And the sun will only shine during the day, but not at night.
We make prayers in vain:
Yes, the beauty of good young years
Old age is crippling!
Nowhere do we escape caustic death...
If we return to “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow,” then the book’s glaring shortcomings really stand out. The story is a collection of scattered fragments, connected only by the names of cities and villages, past which the traveler follows.
Discussions about the blatant injustice of landowners who do not consider their peasants to be people are interspersed with rather dubious considerations regarding some rules of personal hygiene.
Such - as Dostoevsky put it - “scraps and ends of thoughts” side by side with free translations from French enlightenment writers. In addition, Radishchev included his ode “Liberty” and “The Tale of Lomonosov” in the story...
Radishchev, wanting to attract the public to his work, took as a model the then fashionable story by Laurence Stern “ Sentimental Journey in France and Italy,” the originality of which lies in the fact that Stern gracefully and wittily fooled the simple-minded reader, entertaining him with trifling discussions about disparate and unrelated subjects. The naivety of Radishchev is striking and touching, as he wanted to hide behind a fashionable and attractive - in his opinion - form the well-known ideas of the French enlighteners about equality, expressing them in a pompous style: “I finally cried out: man was born into the world equal to everyone else.” Alas, Radishchev’s story was published in 1790, after the Great French Revolution, and fell, as they say, under the hot hand of the empress. After reading it, for some reason she decided that “the author of this book is filled and infected with French delusions, and is trying in every possible way to diminish respect for authority.” She laid the foundation for the myth about Radishchev, saying about him: “a rebel worse than Pugachev.”
Radishchev “Travel from St. Petersburg to Moscow” - essay “Depiction of the people and images in the work “Travel from St. Petersburg to Moscow” by Radishchev”
A. Radishchev’s novel “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow” is one of the most significant phenomena of Russian literature of the eighteenth century. It was written in the then popular “travel” genre, which was discovered by L. Stern, the founder of sentimentalism. In his assessment of man, Radishchev generally followed the sentimentalist writers and wrote that what distinguishes man from the beast is precisely the ability to sympathize. Sympathy and compassion are the main emotions of the narrator in the novel: “I looked around me - my soul became wounded by the suffering of humanity.”
What does the narrator have compassion for? The situation of the people. The novel gives a broad panorama of the life of the serf peasantry. And Radishchev is outraged not so much by the poverty and hard work of the peasants, but by the fact that they, like serfs, are deprived of free will and legally have no rights. “The peasant is dead in law,” writes Radishchev. Moreover, he is dead only when the protection of the law is required. The head of “Zaitsevo” speaks about this. For many years, the cruel landowner and his family tortured the peasants, and no one ever stood up for the unfortunate people. When the peasants, driven out of patience, killed the monster, the law remembered them, and they were sentenced to death.
The fate of the peasant is terrible: “And the lot of the one riveted in chains, and the lot of the prisoner in a stinking dungeon, and the lot of the ox in the yoke.” But the narrator, brought up on the ideas of enlightenment, asserts the equality of all people. But the peasants for the most part are simply better than the landowners as human beings. Almost all of the landowners in Radishchev's novel are negative characters, nonhumans. The morals of the peasants are healthy and natural, they are not infected by artificial civilization. This is especially clearly seen when comparing city and village girls: “Look how all the members of my beauties are round, tall, not bent, not spoiled. It's funny to you that they have feet the size of five. vershoks, and maybe even six. Well, my dear niece, with your three-vershok leg, stand next to them and run in a hurry, who will most quickly reach the tall birch tree standing at the end of the meadow?”
Village beauties are healthy and virtuous, while city girls have “rouge on their cheeks, rouge on their hearts, rouge on their conscience, soot on their sincerity.”
Radishchev’s main merit and his main difference from most accusatory literature of the eighteenth century is that he does not complain about individual negative examples, but condemns the very order of things, the existence of serfdom:
The peace of a slave under the shadow of golden fruits will not increase; Where everything disgusts the mind with aspiration, Greatness does not vegetate there.
The originality of “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow” lies in the fact that Radishchev, taking the form of a “journey,” filled it with accusatory content. Sensitive Hero sentimental literature, although capable of compassion, strives to escape from the evil of this world into himself, and the narrator from “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow” is concerned with public issues and strives to serve the public good.
“Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow” is the first Russian ideological novel, which poses not so much artistic as political goals. This is its originality and significance for all of our literature.
Radishchev "Travel from St. Petersburg to Moscow" - essay "Analysis of Radishchev's "Travel from St. Petersburg to Moscow"
Russia in the 18th century did not know a philosopher equal to Radishchev in the breadth and depth of his mind. With the consistency and versatility of a scientist, he examined and subjected to devastating criticism in “Journey ...” the entire autocratic-serf social system, which brings grief to the people.
“The Journey...”, comprehensive in its coverage of the facts of Russian life, was, as it were, a code of critical anti-monarchist and anti-serfdom statements. With his characteristic analytical depth, Radishchev illuminated the connection between such phenomena as the decline of the morality of the people and the depravity of the upper classes (“the lower ones become infected from the upper ones, and from them the ulcer of depravity reaches the villages”), as well as the mutual dependence of the autocracy and the church. He said that prisoners of captivity, who have power and a sharp edge in their hands,” can be “its most violent preachers,” that censorship, stopping the march of thought, deprives the press of its function as a health-improver of society. The writer’s accusatory voice sounds with particular strength and passion in the chapter “Spasskaya Polest”, where the state and court of Catherine II are depicted in the language of transparent allegory, where the tsar appears in clothes soaked with the blood and tears of the people, “the first murderer in society, the first traitor”, "a hypocrite and a pernicious comedian."
Observing the orgy of oppression of the peasantry, seeing the moral degradation of the upper crust, Radishchev found support for optimistic forecasts among the people. In his work, folk criteria become the measure of a person’s value. It is no coincidence that in a speech on the education of youth, delivered by a Krestitsky nobleman, one of the traveler’s like-minded people, the demand is put forward to feed on the work of one’s own hands, which is the most important norm peasant morality (“Edrovo”). The writer considers the nobility and beauty of the moral and physical appearance of the peasants, their continuous work for the good of society, to be the key to a great future national revival. The growing feeling of protest among the people forced them to exclaim: “Be afraid, hard-hearted landowner, I see your condemnation on the forehead of each of your peasants.” How far Radishchev went in his hatred of the nobility can be seen from his next statement: “Oh! If only the slaves, burdened with heavy bonds, furious in their despair, would break our heads, the heads of their inhuman masters, with iron, the heads of their inhuman masters, and stain their fields with our blood! What would the state lose? Soon great men would be torn from their midst to defend the beaten tribe; but they would be deprived of other thoughts about themselves and the right of oppression. This is not a dream, but the gaze penetrates the thick veil of time, hiding the future from our eyes...” The writer saw the revolution: “The bell strikes, danger is already spinning over our heads. Already time, having raised its scythe, is waiting for the hour of convenience...” Looking back at the past of Russia and Europe, comparing the new history of Russia, France and slave-owning America, Radishchev saw something that his contemporaries did not see - that’s why the ode “Liberty” included in “Journey” , painted the collapse of thrones, the raising of kings to the chopping block, the establishment of a republic.
An enemy of the autocracy, with his “Journey” Radishchev also spoke out against the reactionary currents of social thought, which helped educate the “doer” person, distracted him from the social struggle, and led him “into the fields of delirium” (Freemasonry). He argued that a person cannot be happy if the world is unhappy, denounced the cowardice of the sighted, which objectively strengthened the power of the serf-owner landowners. The writer - the embodied conscience of Russia - saw the ideal of a person in a fighter who lives by the real interests of the people.
Radishchev was ahead of his time. The book and his name illuminated the prospects of the Russian liberation movement for decades to come. He goes down in our history under the name of the first Russian revolutionary. And when the October Socialist Revolution took place, in Petrograd, under the rubble of the fence of the Winter Palace, the former residence of the tsars, the workers' and peasants' government erected its first monument: the face of the prophet of the revolution, writer Alexander Nikolayevich Radishchev, carved from stone facing the Neva distances.
The essay “Depiction of landowners in the work “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow” Like all enlighteners of the 18th century, the firstborn of freedom is based on the theory of “natural law” and “social contract”, and natural “ natural state"considers it as something opposed to oppression, despotism and tyranny. He believes that the ugly public relations distort the human essence of both the oppressed and the oppressed, becoming disastrous both. for both. The social environment, as a rule, turns out to be stronger than good upbringing and good education; Thus, serfdom has its destructive effect not only on serfs, but also on “good gentlemen.” Radishchev considers work to be the basis of high morality, the measure of the value of the human personality. Therefore, the images of peasants in “The Journey” always turn out to be morally superior to the images of serf owners living off the labor of others. The author’s focus is not so much on the characters’ characters and their fates, but on the typification of the general properties of the social life of autocratic-serf Russia at the end of the 18th century. The landowners, the characters in “The Journey,” do not have detailed biographies. Radishchev hardly dwells on them individual traits, since he sees in a person, first of all, a representative of a certain social circle of society. The writer is interested in private character traits only insofar as they are determined by the environment and, in turn, influence the lives of those around him. “Acts... are always the true essence of spiritual formation,” states the author of “Travel” in the chapter “Zaitsovo”. Omitting details, the writer depicts the main thing, i.e., what is characteristic of landowners as a class that oppresses the peasants, and what greatest strength shows the corrupting influence of serfdom on the landowners themselves. Moreover, in many chapters of the book (“Copper”, “Broadway” “ Vyshny Volochek ") Radishchev does not portray the landowner at all and replaces the story about his “actions” with showing the results of his activities. So, for example, the chapter “Lyuban” tells about a meeting of a traveler with a peasant who “plows his field with great care” on a holiday. From questioning, it turns out that the local landowner forces his serfs to do corvée six days a week. “...In the evening,” says the plowman, “we take the hay left in the forest to the master’s yard, if the weather is good; and women and girls, for a walk, go to the forest on holidays to pick mushrooms and berries... But even if you stretch yourself out at the lord’s job, he continues, they won’t say thank you. The master will not pay the capitation; he will not give up a ram, a canvas, a chicken, or butter. Whether it’s life for our brother, like where the barges take rent from the peasant, and even without a clerk. It is true that sometimes good gentlemen take more than three rubles per soul; but anything is better than corvée. Nowadays there is still a belief that villages are given for rent, as they say. And we call it giving with your head. A naked mercenary skins men; doesn’t even leave us a better time. In winter, he is not allowed to drive or work in the city; Everyone work for him so that he pays our capitation. The most diabolical invention is to give your peasants to work for someone else. Although you can complain about a bad clerk, who can complain about a mercenary? The traveler objects to him: “My friend, you are mistaken, the laws prohibit torturing people.” - “To torture? - asks the plowman. - Is it true; but probably, b Zarin, you won’t want to get into my skin.” In another chapter of “Khotilov”, the first-born free person puts the following words into the mouth of the “citizen of future times”: “...Forced work gives less fruit... Where there is nothing to eat, even if there was someone to eat, there will not be; They will die from exhaustion. Thus the field of slavery, not fully bearing fruit, is killing the citizens.” So Radishchev puts forward an economic argument: it is unprofitable, since it reduces the amount of material wealth obtained by the labor of the people. After all, forced labor for a master is less effective than free labor, when a person works for himself. Radishchev also puts forward legal and moral arguments against serfdom. The selfishness of the landowners is exposed by him in the chapter “Vyshny Volochek”. The traveler talks about his meeting with a certain landowner who, not finding satisfaction in public service, retired from the capital to the village in order to get rich by exploiting the labor of others. A true son of the fatherland, Radishchev writes with “excitement of the heart,” because he cannot look indifferently at the lawlessness and injustice around him. Radishchev talks about the case of a thirty-year-old peasant who, due to the hard-heartedness of a young master and his wife, became a recruit in the chapter “Gorodnya”. The old master, “a kind-hearted, reasonable and virtuous man,” gave Vanyusha an excellent upbringing and an exemplary education on par with his son. After graduating from a foreign university, the young serf returned to his homeland, full of bright hopes. However, while still in Riga, the young gentleman received news that his father had died and left a will in which he ordered Vanyusha to be released. “Justice must be given to my former master that he has many good qualities, but timidity of spirit and frivolity darken them,” Vapyusha said about the young master. In a word, the son did not fulfill his father's last wish. “A week after our arrival in Moscow,” Vanyusha continued his story, “my former master fell in love with a girl with a fair face; but which united with the beauty of the body the stingiest soul and the cruel and harsh heart. Brought up in the arrogance of her origins, she considered only appearance, nobility, and wealth to be excellent.” The young landowner did not fall in love with the educated serf and, planning to forcefully marry him to her maid Mavrushka, soon made his life unbearable. Fleeing from humiliation and bullying, Vanya considered 25 years of military service to be the only way out of this situation. Researchers of Radishchev’s work believe that the image of Vanyusha has a real prototype. This is Nikolai Smirnov, a serf of the Golitsyn princes, who attended lectures at Moscow University; he tried to escape from the landowner abroad, but was caught and forced into becoming a soldier. His case was examined in the St. Petersburg Criminal Chamber in 1785. The arbitrariness of the landowners is also described in one of the final chapters of the book “Black Dirt.” The writer also depicted the result of the actions of the “evil landowners” in scenes of the mass sale of serfs at auction in the chapter “Copper”. The citizen of future times, on whose behalf the story is told (read: Radishchev himself), was probably present at one time at one of these auctions, and he was shocked by the terrible picture of the sale of people - one family of servants, consisting of elderly and infirm parents, their daughter - widow and 18-year-old granddaughter, dishonored by the master. The means of depicting characters here are indications of the age of the peasants, brief reports about their appearance and internal qualities, giving specific details of their relationships with the masters and among themselves. The essay “The Traveler - Characteristics of a Literary Hero” The Traveler is the main character and narrator of the famous book, for which Radishchev was called by Catherine II “a rebel worse than Pugachev” and imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress. The court sentenced the writer to death, which was commuted by order of the empress to deprivation of ranks, nobility and exile to Siberia. The ban on the rebellious book was lifted only after the revolution of 1905. The book is travel notes of a wanderer in the Russian province. P. P. is not at all identical to the author - although the Dedication that precedes the book, written on behalf of Radishchev, indicates the closeness of the author and his hero. The impulse for the creation of “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow” was a feeling of compassion: “I looked around me, my soul became wounded by the suffering of humanity.” The next phrase again reminds the reader of the educational objectives of the “Journey”: “I turned my gaze to my insides - and saw that man’s misfortunes come from man, and often only from the fact that he looks indirectly at the objects around him.” The reader is invited, following P., to learn to see the truth and “look” at the world “straightly.” The book does not contain a description of P. as a literary character, with a detailed portrait and biography. Fragmentary information about P. is scattered throughout individual chapters- they are easy to miss, and in order to put them together into a coherent image, considerable reader attention is required. His social position is quite clear: P. is a poor nobleman, an official. With a lesser degree of certainty, we can talk about the hero’s age and marital status - he is a widow, he has children, his eldest son will soon go to serve. In his youth, P. led the life of an ordinary young nobleman. At the very beginning of the journey (chapter “Lyuban”), denouncing the “hard-hearted” landowner, P. recalls his cruel treatment of the coachman Petrushka, whom he beat for an insignificant reason. But there is still a difference: the hero is able to repent. Deep repentance gives rise to thoughts of suicide in him (chapter “Sophia”), which determines some pessimism in the initial chapters, but in the final chapters the general tone of the story becomes optimistic - despite the fact that the number of tragic pictures and impressions only increases by the end of the journey. Reflections on what he saw lead P. to an insight into the truth, which is that any reality can be corrected. The author brings to the reader's attention several possible ways to the transformation of the social system of serf RUSSIA: and reforms from above (chapter “Khotilov” - P. finds; in this chapter there are notes with the “Project for the Future”), enlightenment of the nobility with the help proper education(chapter “Kresttsy” - here the hero listens to the story of an already “enlightened” nobleman about the upbringing of his children), a peasant revolt (“Zaitseve” - this chapter tells how the anger of the serfs against the cruel landowner led to the peasants killing their torturer). Ch. occupies a significant place in thinking about the possibilities of transforming Russia. “Tver”, inside of which is placed the ode “Liberty”, which justifies the people’s right to a revolutionary coup. In Soviet literary criticism there was a widespread point of view that exactly last way expresses the views of Radishchev himself. However, the text of the Travels does not give us grounds for such statements. For Radishchev, several ways to change Russian reality are equal. Thus, the peasant revolt evokes sincere sympathy” Shv. and is completely justified by him as the “natural right” of peasants to be people. In a feudal state, they ceased to be citizens; the law does not protect them. “The peasants are legally dead” is the key phrase of the book. Raising his children as true sons of the Fatherland by the Krestitsky nobleman also gives rise to respect and hope in the hero. So, none of the possibilities is absolutized by the author; the right to choose remains with the reader. Many of the events described in the text are not based on P.’s direct observations, but were told to him by a variety of people met on the road. “Alien” works, accidentally found by P., are also introduced into the text: two “projects in the future”, “a father’s instruction to children”, “ Brief narrative on the origin of censorship", ode "Liberty". At the same time, P. personally meets the author of this ode, a “newfangled poet” (chapter “Tver”) - a definition behind which Radishchev himself hid. Thanks to the constant irony and self-irony P. is pathetic; easily gives way to good-natured humor even in relation to ideas, as if not allowing for frivolity in tone. The presentation of many thoughts that are far from indifferent to Radishchev is accompanied by ironic remarks: thus, having presented to the reader a “project for the future” (a plan for changing society with the help of reforms from above), P. himself considers it “good” to “talk about what is more profitable for those traveling on mail, so that the horses trot or amble, or what is more profitable for a mail nag, to be a pacer or a racer? - rather than doing something that doesn’t exist.” P.'s irony is reminiscent of Stern's wit and lightness. Despite the obvious connection between “Journey” and sentimentalism, Radishchev’s style is far from the smoothness of a sentimentalist style. His language is deliberately heavy, complicated by long syntactic constructions, is replete with Church Slavonicisms. The key to revealing the meaning of such stylistic heaviness lies in the explanations made by the author of “Liberty” about his ode. “Liberty” has more than once been reproached for the difficulty of the language, but in the author’s words, “the roughness of the verse is a pictorial expression of the difficulty of the action itself.” A “heavy” subject, the topic also requires the heaviness of the syllable. In addition, this “heaviness” also referred to a very specific cultural tradition. The complexity of the syntax, the abundance of Church Slavonicisms, forcing the reader to literally wade through the narrative, made P.’s speech special, namely prophetic. A biblical prophet must speak solemnly and highly. Use of archaisms, speech difficulties, High style were used by Radishchev (and subsequently by the Decembrist and all revolutionary literature) as a kind of propaganda technique: the “incomprehensibility” of the speech meant the seriousness and importance of the topic. After Radishchev, the genre of travel in Russian literature was firmly connected with the theme of Russia. It was the image of the road that made it possible to organize the endless Russian expanses and diversity of Russian morals into a single artistic space. Let us recall “Dead Souls” (1842) by Gogol, and “Who Lives Well in Rus'” (1863-1877) by Nekrasov, and structurally the closest “poem” to Radishchev’s “Journey” in prose by Venedikt Erofeev “Moscow - Petushki” (1969) - stlavami - names of stations, with extremely close to the author lyrical hero and the general spirit of “freedom” and opposition to the existing state system. P. Radishcheva is one of the first images of an intellectual (even if this word itself appeared in the language much later) in Russian literature, embodying all the main “intelligentsia” qualities: broad education and willingness to sympathize, a sharp analytical mind and a sense of guilt before the people, irony and often somewhat exaggerated "sensitivity".
