Журнал «Филоlogos»

PITCHFORK" BY A. IVANOV: BETWEEN PUSHKIN’S AND YESENIN’S TRADITION OF UNDERSTANDING THE PUGACHEV REBELLION

Author: Korzhova I.N.

The article examines A. Ivanov's historical and journalistic book "Pitchforks". It is shown that the principles of historicism, science and objectivity are partly displaced in it by the logic of unfolding artistic images. The author declares following the traditions of Pushkin as the author of the "History of Pugachev", but also develops the line of Yesenin, who created his own myth about a peasant rebel Pugachev. Ivanov offers a different understanding of the Pugachev rebellion as the war for identity from his predecessors, so the article is not so much about the conceptual similarity of the authors as about the commonality of approaches to historical material. So, Ivanov, like Yesenin, uses the method of "double reading" of events, including allusions to modernity in the historical work. The author of "Pitchfork" is extremely accurate in describing the ethnic composition of the participants of the riot, in describing their way of life. Unlike Yesenin, who saw first of all a peasant revolt in Pugachevshchina, Ivanov characterizes in detail different groups of rebels. He describes the way of life and values of the Yaitsky Cossacks, mining workers, foreigners and peasants. At the same time, both writers tend to understand attachment to the land as a factor limiting peasant revolt. Both emphasize the Asian origin, connected not only with the composition of the participants, but also with the nature of the riot. Ivanov's Eurasianism corresponds with Yesenin's Scythianism. Nature in "Pitchfork" and "Pugachev" is depicted mythopoetically and assumes the role of an accomplice or the supreme judge of what is happening. The irrationality of the rebellion is reinforced by the appeal to the makarba techniques, the images of the risen dead and the Day of Judgment. Ivanov introduces into his book a tragic hero struggling with fate and guided by it. But it turns out not to be Pugachev, as it was with Yesenin - in relation to the leader of the uprising, the author seeks to maintain an objective distance. The tragic hero of Ivanov is Salavat Yulaev, whose image is soldered with folk legends. Finally, Ivanov directly borrows Yesenin's interpretation of the image of Khlopush. For both of them, Khlopush is not a messenger of Reinsdorp, but a murderer of Pugachev sent by the governor, who sided with the rebels.

Key words:
Pugachev's revolt; tradition; historicity; mythologization of history; tragic hero