The most important milestone in the development of the odic genre was the ode "Liberty" by Radishchev. Poetry attracted the attention of Radishchev throughout his life. A connoisseur of Western European and Russian poetry, he acted as a historian of the latter, writing the first scientific essay on Lomonosov the poet, defining his place in Russian literature; its theorist - having developed questions of metrics, rhyme, poetic skill. The well-known author of the revolutionary book "Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow" was also a poet. Youthful experiences dating back to the 1770s have not come down to us. The first, most important poem in his poetic heritage - the ode "Liberty" - refers to the years 1781-1783. Radishchev also wrote poems in exile - in Siberia and Nemtsov. In the last years of his life, he worked on the poems "Historical Songs", "Bova", "Songs sung at competitions".

The poetic heritage of Radishchev is not quantitatively great, but the contribution of Radishchev the poet is enormous: he is the initiator of Russian revolutionary poetry, its founder. For Radishchev, the writer is not only a patriot, but also a revolutionary, a "soothsayer of liberty", and therefore, consequently, a political figure, a participant in the liberation movement. That is why he chooses new themes - liberty, the crimes of the autocracy, the right of the people to win the freedom forcibly taken from them. What genre should have been chosen for this? The high in classicism was ultimately determined by class ideology - everything that was dedicated to God and the Tsar. Therefore, spiritual and laudatory odes were written. Lomonosov and Derzhavin overcame the genre of laudatory ode and created a new type of civil poem, praising the power of Russia and its people and the greatness of man. Based on these achievements, Radishchev went further.

Slavery oppresses a person. Freedom inspires him, raises him to a new, high life. "It is known that man is a free being, insofar as he is endowed with mind, reason and free will; that his freedom consists in choosing the best, that he knows and chooses this best through reason, comprehends with the help of the mind and always strives for the beautiful, the majestic, the lofty."

Consequently, only freedom raises a person to the “beautiful and majestic”, only in the struggle for freedom does a person reveal his natural greatness and assert himself as a person. This structure of the spiritual life of a person was to determine the style of revolutionary high poetry, in a completely new way.

"Liberty" Radishchev called an ode, radically changing the content of the traditional genre, its theme, style and composition. This poem is a work of great philosophical and political content, it outlines the concept of a people's revolution, welcomed the American people, who won freedom from the colonial slavery of the British in the revolutionary struggle, affirmed the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe equality of people and their right to regain their freedom by force. Thus, Russian revolutionary thought was first expressed in poetic language.

The ode began with the anthem of Liberty. Liberty is a "priceless gift" of a person, "the source of all great deeds." What is "an obstacle to freedom?" The laws created by the autocracy and consecrated by the church, according to which the freedom of the people was taken away and plunged into wild slavery. The people, says Radishchev, have the right to rise up against the oppressors, to oppose the monarch. In the center of the ode is the uprising of the people and the trial of the "villain" autocrat. This showed not only the high courage of the revolutionary poet Radishchev, but also his amazing courage as a poet. Consecrated by a long tradition, praise to the monarch was the main theme of the ode. Even Lomonosov, in his reformed ode, retained this praise, although resolutely restructuring the ode, he turned it into a mandate to the tsars. And Radishchev boldly and with wild inspiration described in an ode (!!!) how the rebels, "having forged a giant with a hundred hands," drag him "to the throne where the people sat down." And the trial of the king-torturer, the king-villain begins:

A criminal of the power I have given!
Tell, villain, married to me,
How dare you rebel against me?

The speech of the people-judge ended with the verdict:

The villain, the fiercest villains of all!
Transcend the evil of your head.
The criminal, of all the first!
Stand up, I call you to judgment!
………………………………………….
You dared to sharpen me with a sting!
A single death for that is not enough -
Die! die a hundred times!

In the second half of the ode, Radishchev talks about the creative activity of the victorious people. The ode ends with an inspired prophecy about the future victory of the Russian revolution. Historicism helped Radishchev to understand that victory was not yet possible in his contemporary conditions: "...but the year has not yet come, fate has not been accomplished." In "Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow", where most of the ode "Liberty" was first published, this idea was clarified - the revolution will be: "This is not a dream, but the gaze penetrates the thick veil of time, hiding the future from our eyes; I see through the whole century".

The new content of the ode "Liberty" required the development of new vocabulary and a new style. First of all, there was a need to create a new political terminology, to determine the content of the words, concepts and terms introduced by him. For example, before Radishchev, the term "liberty" was used in noble and government literature, and it was not at all associated with the concept of political and social freedom of the serf people. On the contrary, the word "liberty" expressed the "eternal" rights dear to the noble heart (see, for example, the decree of Peter III "On the Liberty of the Noble"). This is a typical example of imposing on the words of the national language a meaning pleasing to the ruling class. Will, freedom - the cherished words of the Russian people, expressing their dream, their ideal of life, their hopes; they always meant either freedom from captivity, or freedom from any dependence, and after the establishment of serfdom - freedom from fortress, slavery. It was in this sense that this word sounded during the days of the Pugachev uprising. This word, scorched by the fire of the uprising, full of true popular aspirations, capturing the age-old dream of millions of the oppressed, introduced Radishchev into literature. It was after Radishchev that the word "liberty" finally and forever established itself in Russian literature as a call for revolution, for the destruction of the autocratic system, for the abolition of serfdom.

In order to convince the reader of the right of the people to judge the tsar, it was necessary not only to politically formulate the guilt of the autocrat, but also to poetically reduce the image of the tsar. So a daring epithet appeared in the ode - "villain", and then strengthened - "villain of villains of all the most fierce." Dictionaries captured the meaning of this word in that era - an enemy, a foe, a lawbreaker, a person subject to serious vices. At first glance, the word "villain" in Radishchev's ode did not acquire any new meaning. It was used by the poet in the meaning - "criminal", violator of laws. Only the addressee has changed - in the practice of the literary language of the era, a person who rebelled against autocratic power was called a "villain" (as Pugachev was called in Catherine's manifestos), and Radishchev calls a tsar who violated the laws created by the people a "villain". As we can see, the possibility of such a new, modified use of the word "villain" was determined by the revolutionary convictions of Radishchev. For him, not the monarch, but the people - the creator of laws. Therefore, if the king does not observe them and uses them against the people, then he is a lawbreaker, a "villain." In this meaning, the phrase "tsar-villain" was fixed in the Russian liberation movement, in Russian freedom-loving poetry (see, for example, Pushkin's ode "Liberty"). Before Radishchev, the word "villain" had no such meaning.

Depicting the people's trial of the tsar, describing the uprising of the oppressed, the victory of freedom, Radishchev never used the word "revolution" in his ode "Liberty". Instead, we meet another word - "vengeance." "This is the vengeful right of nature" - this is how Radishchev calls the struggle of the people against the autocracy, in "Journey" he will call the Pugachev uprising "vengeance". The future victory of liberty in Russia will also occur as a result of the fact that the peoples "will take revenge on themselves." The word "revolution" in that era was not widespread. Therefore, Radishchev sought to emphasize the just, historically natural right of the oppressed by force of arms to return the freedom taken from them with the term "vengeance". The word "vengeance" appeared among other synonyms - "indignation", "rebellion", "change", but Radishchev always means one thing - a revolution, an armed struggle of the people for their rights, for liberty.

Radishchev also developed poetic terminology to denote concepts - a revolutionary, a fighter for freedom. He calls such a person "avenger", "leader", "great man", "soothsayer of freedom", whose inspired word gathers "warlike army", arms the people with "hope", and draws them to vengeance - revolution. It was this new poetic vocabulary that helped Radishchev express and capture his personality in revolutionary poetry. The ode "Liberty" is autobiographical; in this regard, Radishchev acted as the heir to Lomonosov and Derzhavin. But the “secret secret” of the soul of the lyrical hero of the ode appeared before the Russian people completely new, unprecedented.

A hater of slavery, a freedom lover, he lived a single life with the outside world, his gaze as a poet and thinker broke through "the veil of time that hides the future from our eyes." He was sad, and it was the grief of a patriot who saw "in his fatherland as a drag" the hated autocracy and slavery. He dreamed, and it was a dream, of a revolution in Russia, of the victory of the people, of "the most chosen day of all days." With his whole life, revolutionary work, freedom-loving poems, he brought this day closer. And the highest reward for him will be the grateful memory of his descendants. Let the young man who is destined to live in this distant future, coming to his grave, say:

Under the yoke of power, this one born,
Wearing gilded shackles,
We were the first to prophesy liberty.

Let the slave sing of you.

Fill your heart with your warmth

In it strong muscles of your blow

Turn the darkness into the light of slavery,

Yes, Brutus and Tell will still wake up,

Sit in power and be confused (*)

From your voice, king.

I came into the light, and you are with me;

There are no my rivets on the muscles;

With my free hand I can

Take the bread given to you.

I carry my feet where it pleases me;

I will listen to what I understand;

I speak what I think.

I can love and be loved;

Doing good, I can be honored;

My law is my will.

( * Sit in power ... - let those sitting on the throne be seized with confusion. (Hereinafter, notes ed.))

But what is wrong with my freedom?

Desires I see the limit everywhere;

There was a common power among the people,

Cathedral of all authorities destiny.

Society is obedient to her in everything,

Everywhere with her unanimously;

There are no obstacles for the common good.

In the power of all I see the share,

I create my own, creating the will of all:

That's what the law is in society.

In the middle of the green valley,

Among the harvested fields,

Where the krins flourish tenderly,

Among the peaceful under the shade of the olives,

Paroska marble is whiter,

The clearest day of the rays is brighter,

There is a transparent temple everywhere;

There the victim is false does not smoke,

There is a fiery inscription:

"The end of innocence troubles."

Olive branch crowned

Sit on a hard stone

Ruthless and cold-hearted

Deaf deity, judge

Whiter than snow in mantle

And always unchanged;

Mirror, sword, scales before him.

Here the truth cuts the gum,

Here justice - oshuyu:

Behold the temple of the Law is clearly visible.

Raises strict apples,

Pours joy, trembling around you,

Equally looks at everything faces,

Neither hating nor loving;

He is alien to flattery, personalities,

Breeds, nobility, wealth,

Disdaining sacrificial aphids;

Kinship does not know, nor affection,

Equally divides both bribes and executions;

He is the image of God on earth.

And this monster is terrible,

Like a hydra with a hundred heads

Tenderly and in tears all the time,

But the jaws are full of poisons,

Earthly authorities are trampled,

He reaches the head of the sky,

"His homeland is there," it says.

Ghosts, sowing darkness everywhere,

Knows how to deceive and flatter

And blindly believe all orders.

Covering the mind with darkness

And everywhere weaving creeping poison,

Threefold surrounded by a wall

The sensitivity of the nature of children;

Dragged into the yoke of enslavement,

Clothed them in the armor of delusion,

He ordered to be afraid of the truth.

"The law is God's," the king proclaims;

"Holy deceit," the sage cries out,

People to press what they invented."

We will look in the vast area,

Where the dim throne stands slavery

The city authorities there are all peaceful,

The image of a deity is in vain in the king.

The power of the royal faith preserves,

Faith affirms royal power,

Allied society is oppressed:

One thing to forge the mind is trying,

The other wants to erase the will;

"For the common good," they say.

Rest of the slave under the canopy

Golden fruits will not grow;

Where all the mind is sickened by aspiration,

Greatness will not live there.

There the fields will be empty, fat,

A scythe and a sickle are not handy there,

A lazy ox will fall asleep in the plow,

The shining sword will fade from glory,

Minervin temple became dilapidated,

The network of deceit stretched into the valley.

Lift up an arrogant forehead,

Grabbing the iron scepter, the king,

Seated imperiously on the triple throne,

The people sees only a vile creature.

Having belly and death in hand:

"By will, - rivers, I spare the villain,

I can give power;

Where I laugh, everything laughs;

I frown menacingly, everything will be confused;

You live then, I command you to live."

And we listen in cold blood

Like the blood of our greedy reptile,

Always cursed undeniably,

In merry days hell is sown to us.

Everything around the throne is arrogant

They stand on their knees.

But the avenger, tremble, is coming.

He says, prophesying liberty,

And lo, rumor from end to end,

Saying freedom, it will leak.

An army will arise everywhere bran,

Hope will arm everyone;

Married in the blood of the tormentor

Everyone is in a hurry to wash away their shame.

The sword is sharp, I see, it sparkles everywhere,

In various forms, death flies,

Above the proud head of the steam.

Rejoice, riveted peoples!

Behold the right of vengeful nature

The king was erected on the chopping block.

And the night is a false veil

With a crash, powerfully tearing,

Puffy power and obstinacy

Huge idol corrected,

Having forged a handful giant,

Attracts him like a citizen

To the throne where the people sat:

"Criminal of the power I have given!

Tell, villain, married to me,

How dare you rebel against me?

I clothed you in purple

Maintain equality in society

To despise the widow and the serah,

To save innocence from troubles,

She should be a loving father;

But an implacable avenger

Vice, lies and slander;

Honor merit award,

Device to warn evil,

Keep morals pure.

I covered the sea with ships,

He built piers in the shores,

To bid treasures

Flowed in abundance in the cities;

Golden harvest so that it is tearless

She was helpful;

He could broadcast over the plow:

"I am not a mercenary with my reins,

Not a prisoner in his pastures,

I bless you."

I have no mercy for my blood

He raised a thundering army;

I sculpted copper masses,

Villains external to punish;

I told you to obey

With you to strive for glory;

For the benefit of all, I can do everything.

I tear the bowels of the earth,

I extract shiny metal

For your decoration.

But you, forgetting my oath given,

Forgetting that I chose you

For your own pleasure, to be married,

I imagined that you are the Lord (*) - not me;

With a sword I dissolved my statutes,

Silently plunged all rights (**),

He commanded to be ashamed of the truth;

Cleared the way for the abominations.

He began to cry not to me, but to God,

And he wanted to hate me.

(* The Lord is here: mister.)

(** The voiceless mi threw down all the rights ... - autocratically violated the laws.)

Delivering bloody sweat

The fruit that I have planted for food

Sharing crumbs with you

He did not spare his effort;

All treasures are not enough for you!

Well, tell me, they were not enough,

What rags tore off me?

Give a pet, full of flattery!

A wife who shuns honor!

Or did you recognize gold as a god?

In excellent sign invented

You began to give impudence;

In the villain my sophisticated sword

You began to promise innocence;

Loaded shelves in defense

Are you famous for scolding

Punish for humanity?

In the bloody valleys you fight

So that, drunk in Athens,

"Iroy!" - yawning, you could say.

The villain, the fiercest villains of all!

Transcend the evil of your head.

The criminal, of all the first!

Stand up, I call you to judgment!

Atrocities accumulated all in one,

Yes, not a single one will pass by

You from executions, adversary!

You dared to sharpen me with a sting!

One death for that is not enough

Die! die a hundred times!"

Great husband, full of deceit,

A hypocrite, and a flatterer, and sacrilege!

You are one in the light so beneficent

Serfdom is inextricably linked with autocracy in Russia - the second face of the “monster”. Radishchev exposes the inhuman essence, the irreparable, nationwide harm of serfdom in an indissoluble unity both as an artist-publicist and as a political sociologist.

The question of the peasant revolution includes two problems in Radishchev: the justice of popular indignation and its inevitability. Radishchev brings the reader to the idea of ​​the justice of the revolution also gradually. It relies on the enlightenment theory of the “natural” human right to self-defense, without which no living creature can do. In a normally organized society, all its members should be protected by the law, but if the law is inactive, then the right of self-defense inevitably comes into force. One of the first chapters ("Lyubani") speaks of this right, but so far only briefly.

Ode "Liberty" was written in the period from 1781 to 1783, but work on it continued until 1790, when it was published with abbreviations in "Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow", in the chapter "Tver". Its full text appeared only in 1906. The ode was created at a time when the American Revolution had just ended and the French Revolution was beginning. Its civic pathos reflects the inexorable desire of peoples to throw off the feudal-absolutist oppression.

Radishchev begins his ode with the glorification of freedom, which he considers a priceless gift of nature, the "source" of "all great deeds." In a country where the vast majority of the population was in serfdom, this very thought was a challenge to the existing order. Liberty is given to every person by nature itself, the author believes, and therefore in the “natural state” people did not know any constraint and were absolutely free: “I came into the light, and you are with me; // There are no my rivets on the muscles ... ”(T. 1. P. 1). But in the name of the common good, people united in society, limited their “will” to laws that are beneficial to everyone, and elected a government that should monitor their strict implementation. Radishchev draws the beneficent consequences of such a device: equality, abundance, justice. Religion surrounded the power of the ruler with a divine halo and thereby freed him from responsibility to the people. The monarch turns into a despot:

The loss of freedom has a detrimental effect in all areas of society: fields are emptying, military prowess is fading, justice is being violated. But history does not stand still, and despotism is not eternal. The discontent grows among the people. The herald of freedom appears. Outrage erupts. Here Radishchev sharply differs from European enlighteners. Rousseau, in The Social Contract, confines himself to a brief observation that if a monarch elected by society violates the laws, the people have the right to terminate the social contract previously concluded with him. In what form this will happen, Rousseau does not disclose. Radishchev finishes everything. In his ode, the people overthrow the monarch, judge him and execute him:

Not content with speculative proofs of the inevitability of the revolution, Radishchev seeks to rely on the experience of history. It recalls the English Revolution of 1649, the execution of the English king. Attitude towards Cromwell is contradictory. Radishchev praises him for "executing Karl at the trial" and at the same time severely reproaches him for the usurpation of power. The ideal of the poet is the American Revolution and its leader Washington.

Humanity, according to Radishchev, goes through a cyclic path in its development. Freedom turns into tyranny, tyranny into freedom. Radishchev himself, retelling the contents of the 38th and 39th stanzas in the chapter “Tver”, explains his thought as follows: “Such is the law of nature; freedom is born from torment, slavery is born from freedom ... ”(T. 1. S. 361). Addressing the peoples who have thrown off the yoke of the despot, Radishchev calls on them to protect the freedom they have won as the apple of their eye:

Despotism still triumphs in Russia. The poet and his contemporaries "drag" "the shackles of an unbearable burden." Radishchev himself does not hope to live to see the day, but he firmly believes in her coming victory, and he would like his compatriot to come to his grave and say.

In its style, the ode "Liberty" is a direct successor to the laudable odes of Lomonosov. It is written in iambic tetrameter, ten-line stanzas with the same rhyme. But its content is strikingly different from Lomonosov's odes. Radishchev does not believe in enlightened monarchs, and therefore the objects of his praise are the freedom and indignation of the people against the tsar.

Before us is a variety of the odic genre of the 18th century. - revolutionary-enlightenment ode as one of the phenomena of enlightenment classicism.

The task of the ode is to comprehend the lessons of history. The ode "Liberty" was created during the rise of the revolutionary movement in America and France. It is full of firm faith in the triumph of liberation ideas.

TICKET 13
1. The solemn ode of M.V. Lomonosov: problems and poetics.
By its nature and mode of existence in the cultural context of our time, Lomonosov's solemn ode is . oratory as much as literary. Solemn odes were created with the intention of reading aloud in front of the addressee; the poetic text of the solemn ode is designed to be a sounding speech, perceived by ear. The typological features of the oratorical genres in the solemn ode are the same as in the sermon and the secular oratorical Word. First of all, this is the attachment of the thematic material of the solemn ode to a certain “occasion” - a historical incident or an event of a national scale.

The composition of the solemn ode is also determined by the laws of rhetoric: each odic text invariably opens and ends with appeals to the addressee. The text of the solemn ode is built as a system of rhetorical questions and answers, the alternation of which is due to two parallel operating installations: each individual fragment of the ode is designed to have the maximum aesthetic impact on the listener - and hence the language of the ode is oversaturated with tropes and rhetorical figures. As for the sequence of the development of the odic plot (the order of the individual fragments and the principles of their correlation and sequence), it is determined by the laws of formal logic, which facilitates the perception of the odic text by ear: the formulation of the thesis, the proof in the system of successively changing arguments, the conclusion repeating the initial formulation. Thus, the composition of the ode obeys the same mirror-cumulative principle as the composition of satire, and their common proto-genre - sermons. Lomonosov managed to determine the relationship between the addressee and the addressee. * In the classic ode lyric. the hero is weakly expressed according to the laws of the genre. The addresser is expressed only nationally (i.e. I am Lomonosov, a Russian poet), one of the subjects of the monarch. Such a static lyre. the hero is not satisfied with the author, because there is no movement here. Lomonosov, in order to evaluate all the act of the monarch, the addressee must be the embodiment of reason, i.e. instead of static lyric. "I", Lomonosov suggests duality; a subject mind that can soar above all and evaluate the deeds of the monarch. Lomonosov structures the composition by changing the position of the addresser's point of view. A change in the point of view of the lyric. the hero allows at the same time to combine concreteness and delight. The description of deeds is connected with the sphere of the floating mind, hence the presence of strong metaphors, hyperboles, and other images, the interweaving of paths, the conjugation of the past, present and future. The monarch almost arrives in heaven, but the mind is lyrical. the hero can also be the monarch's vertically structured space. Lomonosov's triumphal ode, in terms of content, has classic features, and the lines of rhenium form are a Baroque heritage. The movement of the "soaring mind" suggests a complex relationship of stanzas in which the movement of thought is observed. The odic stanza has a trace. view: AbAbCCdede- (part 1 - quatrain, part 2 - couplet, part 3 - quatrain). The sizes of each of these parts do not always coincide, but often predetermine the division into 2 main thoughts and one additional one. The connections between stanzas are not always immediately visible, sometimes they are images or parallels, but often you can catch the author's movement of thought from stanza to stanza.

As odic characters, Russia, Peter I and the divine sciences are equalized by one single common property: they are characters of the ode insofar as they are ideas expressing a general concept. Not a concrete historical person and monarch Peter I, but the idea of ​​an Ideal monarch; not the state of Russia, but the idea of ​​the Fatherland; not a specific branch of scientific knowledge, but the idea of ​​the Enlightenment - these are the true heroes of the solemn ode.

In France, it led to the collapse of Western European feudalism, the struggle of the oppressed peoples for freedom and the growth of their national self-consciousness. In Russia at that time, the best representatives of the nobility realized that the abolition of serfdom was politically necessary, since it served as an obstacle to the economic and social development of the state. But the task of the leaders of progress was even wider - they set themselves the goal of emancipating the individual, his spiritual freedom. Russia's victory over Napoleon, who encroached on world domination, gave rise to hopes that social reforms would finally take place in the country. Many figures of that time urged the king to take quick, decisive action.

The theme of liberty in the work of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin

The idea of ​​a free Russia runs through all the work of Alexander Sergeevich. Already in his early works, he spoke out against despotism and the injustice of the modern social system, denounced tyranny, destructive for the people. So, at the age of 16, he wrote the poem "Licinius", and in 1818 - one of the most ardent songs dedicated to freedom - "To Chaadaev", in which one can hear the belief that the country "will wake up from sleep." The theme of liberty is also heard in the poems "Arion", "In the depths of Siberian ores", "Anchar" and others.

Creation of the ode "Liberty"

However, Pushkin's views were most clearly and fully expressed in his famous ode "Liberty", written in 1817, shortly after his graduation from the Lyceum. It was created in the apartment of the Turgenev brothers. Its windows overlooked the place where Paul I was killed - Mikhailovsky Castle.

The influence of Radishchev's ode on Pushkin's

The name itself suggests that Alexander Sergeevich took as a model a poem by another Russian poet with the same name. Ode "Liberty" (Radishchev), the summary of which is similar to the creation of Alexander Sergeevich of the same name, is still slightly different from Pushkin's. Let's try to answer what exactly.

Pushkin emphasizes that his work is connected with Radishchevsky and a variant of one line from the poem "Monument". Like his predecessor, Alexander Sergeevich glorifies political freedom, liberty. Both poets point to examples of the triumph of liberty in history (Radishchev - to what happened in the 17th century, and Pushkin - to the revolution in France in 1789). Alexander Sergeevich, following Alexander Nikolayevich, believes that the law, which is the same for all, is the key to the existence of political freedom in the country.

Radishchev's ode "Liberty" is the people's call for revolution, for the overthrow of the tsar's power in general, while Alexander Sergeyevich's ode is directed only against "tyrants" who put themselves above any law. It is about this that he writes that he can say that in his work he expressed the views of the early Decembrists, whom he sympathized with and under whose influence he was.

Features of Pushkin's ode

The power of Alexander Sergeevich's verse, his artistic skill, gave a more revolutionary significance to this work. The ode "Liberty" was perceived by progressive youth as a call for open speech, the analysis of which is proposed in this article. For example, Pirogov, a famous Russian surgeon of that time, recalling his young years, tells the following fact. Speaking about the political views of Alexander Sergeevich, reflected in the work "Liberty", one of his comrades, at that time still a student, said that in our opinion a revolution is a revolution, "with a guillotine", like the French one.

In particular, the lines that ended the second stanza sounded revolutionary: "Tyrants of the world! Tremble!..."

Ode "Liberty": a summary

Pushkin wrote his poem, following the example of Radishchev, in the form of an ode. It begins with an appeal to the muse - a formidable singer of freedom for kings. A theme is also outlined here - the author writes that he wants to "sing of freedom to the world" and to defeat vice on the thrones. After this comes the exposition of the main proposition: for the people's good, it is necessary to combine powerful laws with the freedom of the saint. It is illustrated by examples from history (Paul I, Depicting historical events (the execution of Louis during the French Revolution, the assassination of Paul I in the Mikhailovsky Palace by the hands of mercenaries), the poet is hostile not only to tyranny, but also to those who destroy the enslavers, since the blows these people are inglorious: they are illegal and treacherous.

Calling for an uprising of self-consciousness, spirit, Alexander Sergeevich understands the importance of resolving conflicts legally - this is precisely what Pushkin's historical analysis indicates. Liberty should be tried to get, while avoiding bloodshed. Another method is fatal both for tyrants and for the Russian people themselves.

Ode "Liberty", the analysis of which is offered to your attention, ends, as usual, with an appeal to the sovereign himself with a call to learn a lesson from the foregoing.

Compositional harmony helps us to observe the movement of the poet's feelings and thoughts. The verbal means of expressing the content are in accordance with it. The ode "Liberty", a summary of which is presented above, is an example of high artistic perfection.

Features of poetics

Poetic speech (excited, upbeat) reflects the various feelings that owned the author: a passionate desire for freedom (in the first stanza), indignation against oppressors and tyrants (second stanza), the grief of a citizen of the state at the sight of lawlessness (third stanza), etc. To the poet managed to find accurate and at the same time figurative words in order to convey the feelings and thoughts that owned him. For example, Pushkin calls the muse of political ode "Pushkin" a "proud singer of freedom", "a thunderstorm of tsars". "Liberty", the analysis of which is offered to you in this article, is a work inspired from above. It is the muse that inspires the poet with "bold hymns."

The revolutionary meaning of the ode

Ode "Liberty" (analysis see above) had a significant revolutionary impact on the contemporaries of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, was used in revolutionary agitation by the Decembrists.

Soon the poet is disappointed in his former idealistic ideas that the monarch seeks to do everything he can to improve the life of his people, because Alexander the First could not decide on radical reforms that would put an end to serfdom. Russia was still a feudal state. Progressive-minded nobles, including friends of Alexander Sergeevich, created with the aim of forcibly overthrowing the autocracy and thus liquidating various revolutionary societies.

Pushkin did not formally belong to any of them, but the way of thinking akin to the revolutionaries led him to realize the impossibility of liberal reforms in Russia "from above". He reflected this idea in his subsequent works. The ode "Liberty", the analysis of which makes it better understood, also called for the overthrow of tyrannical power "from below" through revolution.

The problems of the ode "Liberty"

But A.N. Radishchev was not only a prose writer, but also a poet. A generalization of the historical and political concepts of Radishchev was the ode "Liberty", which was the first classical monument of Russian revolutionary poetry. "Liberty" is included in "Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow", in the chapter "Tver".

The ode is based on the general educational theories of the natural equality of people, natural law and social contract, rethought by Radishchev in a revolutionary spirit. In the ode "Liberty" Radishchev further deepened the criticism of the autocracy and expressed the idea that the church is a reliable support for the autocracy.

In its style, Liberty is a direct successor to Lomonosov's commendable odes. It is written in iambic tetrameter, ten-line stanzas with the same rhyme. But its content is strikingly different from Lomonosov's odes. Radishchev does not believe in enlightened monarchs, and therefore the objects of his praise are the freedom and indignation of the people against the tsar.

A.N. begins his ode. Radishchev with the glorification of liberty, which he considers a priceless gift of nature, the "source" of "all great deeds." In a country where the vast majority of the population was in serfdom, this very thought was a challenge to the existing order.

Liberty is given to every person by nature itself, the author believes, and therefore in the “natural state” people did not know any constraint and were absolutely free: “I came into the light, and you are with me; There are no my rivets on the muscles ... ". But in the name of the common good, people united in society, limited their “will” to laws that are beneficial to everyone, and elected a government that should monitor their strict implementation. A.N. Radishchev draws the good consequences of such a device: equality, abundance, justice. Religion surrounded the power of the ruler with a divine halo and thereby freed him from responsibility to the people: "The power of the royal faith protects, The power of the royal faith affirms, Allied society is oppressed." The monarch turns into a despot:

Lifting up your haughty forehead, grasping the iron scepter, O king,

Seated imperiously on the formidable throne, among the people he sees only a vile creature.

The loss of freedom has a detrimental effect in all areas of society: the fields are emptying, military prowess is fading, justice is being violated. But history does not stand still, and despotism is not eternal. The discontent grows among the people. The herald of freedom appears. Outrage erupts. Here Radishchev sharply differs from European enlighteners. So, if Rousseau in the book "The Social Contract" is limited to only a brief remark that if the monarch, elected by society, violates the laws, the people have the right to terminate the social contract previously concluded with him (in what form this will happen, Rousseau does not disclose), then Radishchev agrees to the end. In his ode, the people overthrow the monarch, judge him and execute him:

“An army will arise everywhere, a bran, hope will arm everyone;

Everyone is in a hurry to wash their shame in the blood of the tormentor.

Rejoice, riveted nations;

This right, avenged by nature, raised the king to the scaffold.

Not content with speculative proofs of the inevitability of the revolution, Radishchev seeks to rely on the experience of history. It recalls the English Revolution of 1649, the execution of the English king. Radishchev praises him for "executing Karl at the trial" and at the same time severely reproaches him for the usurpation of power.

Humanity, according to A.N. Radishchev, goes through a cyclic path in its development. Freedom turns into tyranny, tyranny into freedom. Radishchev himself, retelling the contents of the 38th and 39th stanzas in the chapter “Tver”, explains his thought as follows: “Such is the law of nature; freedom is born from torment, slavery is born from freedom ... ". Addressing the peoples who have thrown off the yoke of the despot, Radishchev calls on them to protect the freedom they have won as the apple of their eye:

"Oh you! happy nations, where chance has granted liberties!

Observe the gift of good nature, in the hearts that the eternal has inscribed.

Despotism still triumphs in Russia. The poet and his contemporaries "drag" "the shackles of an unbearable burden." A.N. Radishchev does not hope to live to see the day of freedom: "The year is not yet ripe, Destiny has not been accomplished," but he firmly believes in her coming victory, and he would like his compatriot to come to his grave and say:

"Under the yoke of power, this one born,

Mowing the shackles are gilded,

We were the first to prophesy liberty.