Revolutionary activity and exile.
The second half of the 19th century brought our country many talented literary figures... One of them is journalist, prose writer and publicist Vladimir Galaktionovich Korolenko.
Vladimir Korolenko was born in 1853 in the city of Zhitomir, Ukraine. Vladimir's father worked as a judge. He had a rather strict but incorruptible character, which made him stand out from other officials. Vladimir's mother is a native of Poland, and that is why in early years In life, the Polish language became the mother tongue for the future writer.
The family was large: Vladimir lived with two brothers and sisters. He spent all his childhood in Ukraine, and later he filled many of his works with memories of these years.
Education and adolescence
Volodymyr Korolenko studied at the Polish boarding school and the Zhytomyr gymnasium. When his father passed away, leaving his family in a difficult situation, his son was educated at the Rivne real school.
In the future, he had to leave the St. Petersburg Institute of Technology, as there was not enough money for training. He continued to study at the Petrovsk Agricultural Academy and the Mining Institute, from which he was successively expelled for his revolutionary inclinations.
Attitude to the revolution
Already from his youth, Korolenko shared the idea of populism. For bold criticism of the tsarist regime, the authorities did not spare young man sending it to a new link over and over again.
Six years in difficult conditions did not weaken him, only tempered his character and served in the future good stuff for stories. But Vladimir Korolenko also criticized the October Revolution, which, it would seem, just met the interests of the populist movement. As a true humanist, he did not welcome mass killings of people. He shared this with Lunacharkiy in his "Letters" written in 1920.
Creation
In the magazine "Slovo" Vladimir Korolenko published his first work "An Episode from the Life of a Seeker". But the stories “In bad society”,“ Dream of Makar ”and“ The Blind Musician ”. Korolenko based these works on his childhood memories of life in his homeland.
In addition to prose, Vladimir created many publicistic works devoted to acute social problems of his modernity. For example, the article "Everyday Phenomenon" about the suppression of the revolution in 1905.
Personal life: wife and children
Korolenko married once, to his old friend Evdokia Ivanovskaya, who, like him, was a revolutionary populist. He lived with her until the end of his days, and together they reproduced two daughters - Natalia and Sophia.
Already during his lifetime, Vladimir made many good acquaintances among famous writers, who spoke of him as kind, cheerful, smart man you can go wherever you go.
Death
Korolenko spent the last years of his life in Poltava. Here the family had their own dacha, where all its members came for the summer.
At the end of his life, the writer created a voluminous autobiographical essay "The Story of My Contemporary." He died of pneumonia in 1921 without completing the fourth volume.
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Vladimir Galaktionovich Korolenko- Russian writer of Ukrainian-Polish origin, journalist, publicist, public figure, who deserved recognition for his human rights activities both during the years of the tsarist regime and during Civil war and Soviet power... For his critical views, Korolenko was repressed by the tsarist government. Substantial part literary works the writer was inspired by the impressions of his childhood in Ukraine and exile to Siberia.
Honorary Academician Imperial Academy sciences in the category of fine literature (1900-1902).
Korolenko was born in the family of a district judge, began to study at a Polish boarding school, then at the Zhitomir gymnasium, and graduated from the Rivne real gymnasium.
In 1871 he graduated from it with a silver medal and entered the St. Petersburg Institute of Technology. But need forced Korolenko to abandon his doctrine and move to the position of an "intelligent proletarian." In 1874 he moved to Moscow and entered the Petrovskaya Agricultural and Forestry (now Timiryazevskaya) Academy. In 1876 he was expelled from the gymnasium for a year and sent into exile, which was then replaced by a supervised "residence" in Kronstadt. Korolenko was refused reinstatement at the Petrovskaya Academy, and in 1877, for the third time, he became a student at the St. Petersburg Mining Institute.
Korolenko considered himself a writer-fiction writer "only half", the other half of his work was journalism, closely associated with his multifaceted social activities. By the mid-80s, Korolenko was publishing dozens of correspondence and articles.In 1879, Korolenko was arrested following a denunciation by an agent of the tsarist gendarmerie. Over the next six years, he was in prison, in stages, in exile. In the same year, Korolenko's story "Episodes from the Life of a Seeker" appeared in a St. Petersburg magazine. While in the Vyshnevolotsk political prison, he writes the story "Wonderful" (the manuscript was circulated in copies, without the author's knowledge the story was published in 1893 in London, in Russia - only in 1905 under the title "Business trip").
Since 1885, Korolenko was allowed to settle in Nizhny Novgorod. The next eleven years were the heyday of his creativity and active social activities. Since 1885, the metropolitan magazines regularly publish stories and sketches created or printed in exile: "Makar's Dream", "In a Bad Society", "The Forest Is Noisy", "Sokolinets", etc. Collected together in 1886, they compiled the book " Essays and stories ”. In the same year, Korolenko worked on the novel The Blind Musician, which survived fifteen editions during the author's lifetime.
The stories made up two groups related to the sources of themes and images: Ukrainian and Siberian. Another source of impressions, reflected in a number of Korolenko's works, is the Volga and the Volga region. The Volga for him is the "cradle of Russian romanticism", its shores still remember the campaigns of Razin and Pugachev, the "Volga" stories and travel sketches are filled with thoughts about the fate of the Russian people: "Behind the Icon", "At the Eclipse" (both - 1887), "In Cloudy Day ”(1890),“ The River Plays ”(1891),“ The Artist Alymov ”(1896), etc. In 1889 the second book“ Essays and Stories ”was published.
In 1883, Korolenko went on a trip to America, the result of which was a story, and in fact a whole novel about the life of a Ukrainian émigré in America "Without a Language" (1895).
Korolenko considered himself a writer-fiction writer "only half", the other half of his work was journalism, closely associated with his multifaceted social activities. By the mid-80s, Korolenko was publishing dozens of correspondence and articles. From his publications in the newspaper Russkiye Vedomosti, the book In a Hungry Year (1893) was compiled, in which a stunning picture of the national disaster is associated with poverty and serfdom, in which the Russian countryside continued to remain.
For health reasons, Korolenko moved to Poltava (after the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1900 elected him an honorary member). Here he completes the cycle of Siberian stories ("Sovereign Coachmen", "Frost", "Feudal lords", "The Last Ray"), writes the story "Not terrible".
In 1903 the third book "Essays and Stories" was published. In 1905, work began on the multivolume History of My Contemporary, which continued until Korolenko's death.
After the defeat of the first Russian revolution in 1905, he opposed the "wild orgy" of death penalty and punitive expeditions (essays "Everyday phenomenon" (1910), "Features of military justice" (1910), "In a calm village" (1911), against chauvinistic persecution and slander ("The Beilis Case" (1913).
Having left on the eve of the First World War for treatment abroad, Korolenko was able to return to Russia only in 1915. After the February Revolution, he published the brochure The Fall royal power».
Struggling with progressive heart disease, Korolenko continues to work on The History of My Contemporary, essays on Earth! Land! ”, Organizes the collection of food for the children of Moscow and Petrograd, founds colonies for orphans and homeless children, was elected honorary chairman of the League for the Salvation of Children, the All-Russian Committee for Aid the Hungry. The death of the writer came from a relapse of brain inflammation.
One of the main themes artistic creation Korolenko - the path to the "real people". Reflections about the people, the search for an answer to the riddle of the Russian people, which determined so much in the human and literary fate of Korolenko, are closely related to the question that runs through many of his works. "What, in essence, was man created for?" - this is how the question is posed in the story "Paradox". “Man is born for happiness, like a bird for flight,” the creature, distorted by fate, answers in this story. No matter how hostile life is, "there are still fires ahead!" - wrote Korolenko in the prose poem "Lights" (1900). But Korolenko's optimism is not thoughtless, does not close his eyes to reality. "Man is created for happiness, only happiness is not always created for him." So Korolenko asserts his understanding of happiness.
Korolenko- a realist who has always been attracted by romanticism in life, reflecting on the fate of the romantic, high in a harsh, not at all romantic reality. He has many heroes, whose spiritual intensity, self-burning selflessness lift them above the dull, sleepy reality, serve as a reminder of "the highest beauty of the human spirit."
"... To reveal the meaning of the individual on the basis of knowledge of the masses" - this is how Korolenko formulated the problem of literature back in 1887. This requirement, realized in the work of Korolenko himself, connects him with the literature of the subsequent era, which reflected the awakening and activity of the masses.
Vladimir Galaktionovich Korolenko was born in 1853 in Zhitomir. His father Galaktion Afanasyevich was a district judge, distinguished by a stern and strict disposition, but he was a generous person. The humanism of the writer Korolenko was formed, among other things, by observing his own parents. The character of Korolenko's father is described in the story "In a Bad Society" as the father of the protagonist, a fair judge.
Due to the fact that Galaktion Korolenko did not take bribes, he was known as an eccentric in the city. After his death, the townspeople reproached the judge for leaving the children beggars.
Korolenko's father came from a Cossack family. According to family tradition, the Korolenko were descendants of Ivan Korol, a Cossack colonel from Mirgorod. Academician Vernadsky, a rather close relative of the writer Korolenko (second cousin), also descended from the same colonel.
The writer's mother was the daughter of a Polish landowner and professed Catholicism. The native language of the future writer was Polish. He also began his studies in Polish at Rychlinsky's Polish boarding school. Then Vladimir studied at the Zhitomir gymnasium until the family moved to Rovno.
Korolenko had two brothers and three sisters, one of whom died in infancy. Father died when Vladimir was 15 years old, in 1868. After graduating from the Rovno real school, Korolenko entered the St. Petersburg Institute of Technology in 1871.
Once in St. Petersburg, Korolenko was carried away by social life, but was forced to leave his studies due to extreme poverty. For some time he worked as a proofreader, and in 1874 he entered the Petrovskaya Agricultural and Forestry Academy in Moscow, where he could receive a scholarship. His teacher was young Timiryazev, who later became a famous scientist. Timiryazev became the prototype of Izborsky in the story "From Two Sides", about him Korolenko reflected in "The History of My Contemporary".
Korolenko became an activist of student gatherings, and in 1876 he was expelled for a period of one year for drawing up a collective statement of students against the administration of the academy. Soon he was arrested and exiled to Ust-Sysolsk, and then settled in Kronstadt. A year later, Korolenko tried to recover at the academy, but he was refused for fear that he would enthrall other students with his ideas.
Korolenko was forced to work as a proofreader for the St. Petersburg newspaper Novosti. In 1877 he entered the St. Petersburg Mining Institute.
“Rot and decay. Lie from top to bottom "
This is how Korolenko characterized the society of his day. The young man was still considered unreliable and was soon arrested along with his two brothers. He was exiled to the city of Glazov in the Urals. Fearing his "independent and daring inclinations," the police chief achieved his settlement in Berezovskiye Pochinki - a terrible wilderness. In 1880, Korolenko was falsely accused of escaping and arrested, then exiled to Eastern Siberia and reached Tomsk, but was returned and settled in Perm. To support himself and his family, he worked as a shoemaker until he got the position of a clerk. railroad in 1881, but six months later, Korolenko was again arrested for unwillingness to sign the oath of allegiance to Alexander 3. Korolenko was named a state criminal, exiled to Eastern Siberia and, after imprisonment, sent to a settlement in the Amga settlement of the Yakutsk region. Only in 1885 was Korolenko allowed to settle in Nizhny Novgorod. By this time, he had created many stories written in the intervals between agricultural work in the settlement and shoemaking.
The beginning of literary creativity
Korolenko published his first stories in 1879, but was soon exiled to Amga, where he wrote his best stories, published only in 1885: "Makar's Dream", "In a Bad Society", "Sokolinets". In 1886, the first book of essays and stories by Korolenko was published, and the story "The Blind Musician" was published. About his first book Korolenko received rave reviews from Chekhov, Garshin, Chernyshevsky. The stories are dedicated to people striving for truth and freedom at the cost of their own suffering ("Wonderful" about a courageous young revolutionary, "Yashka" about a peasant denouncing the chiefs, "Sokolinets" about a man who lost his freedom). The stories written in the link are related to the new impressions of the writer ("Dream of Makar" about difficult life the Yakut peasant, "The Killer" about truth-seeking).
"Man was created for happiness, like a bird for flight"
This famous aphorism says one of the heroes of the story "Paradox". It is paradoxical that a person, more often than not, does not achieve his destiny. Korolenko opposed this fact not only with his entire destiny, but also with his most significant work - the story "The Blind Musician". Main character, blind from birth, overcomes the darkness and misfortunes intended for him, becoming a famous musician and having his sight spiritually, switching from his own suffering to the suffering of others.
Korolenko saw the main task of the writer in changing society and life in general. He believed that literature should call, reject, curse and bless.
During his life in Nizhny Novgorod (from 1886 to 1896) Korolenko wrote a series of stories about a shoemaker denouncing society, a book of essays "In Deserted Places", "Pavlovsk Essays" about the hard work of Pavlov's handicraftsmen. In 1892 Korolenko visited the Lukoyanovsky district of the Nizhny Novgorod province, which suffered from a poor harvest, and wrote an accusatory essay "In a hungry year".
The writer's newspaper articles are directed against those in power in Nizhny Novgorod. Publicism allowed the writer to intervene in life directly.
Humanism Korolenko
Korolenko was the greatest humanist of its time. He appreciated a person as such, regardless of his social status or nationality. The proof of this is the participation of Korolenko in the “multan case”. Korolenko defended the Udmurt peasants, Votyaks, who were accused of ritual murder and sentenced to hard labor. Korolenko obtained a review of the case and took over the duties of a defender. 8 days after his defense speech, the peasants were acquitted.
Korolenko was anxious about the issue of nationalities and races, seeing a person behind convention. He defended not only the Votyaks, but also the Jews described in the story "Without a Language" with sympathy. In 1893, Korolenko visited an exhibition in Chicago and was shocked by the attitude towards blacks, who, at the very first offense, were waiting for "lynch and execution" in a country that calls itself free and democratic. The story "Without a Language" describes the adventures of the peasant Matvey Lozitsky, who went from Volyn to America to look for better life... America is described through the eyes of this straightforward, simple-minded man, honest and hardworking. Having met Jewish compatriots, Matvey finds in them a lot in common with himself. They turn out to be the same as him, victims of circumstances, cut off from home and uncertain about the future. This is how Matvey comes to the value of a human person. People help him himself of different nationalities, beliefs, material and social status.
In 1889, Korolenko met Gorky, who considered Korolenko a democrat writer, a continuer of the traditions of Russian literature. When Nicholas I in 1902 canceled by his decree the decision of the Academy of Sciences to elect Gorky as its member, Korolenko, an honorary academician in the category of fine literature, in 1902 applied to leave the academy.
Poltava period of life and work
In 1900 Korolenko moved to Poltava and lived there until his death. All their life, the Korolenko family lived very modestly, being content with the essentials both in everyday life and in food. The Korolenko spouses raised two daughters, and their two children died in infancy. Korolenko's stories of this period are dedicated to heroes who compromised their conscience. "Humble" about false humility, blindness of the villagers. "Not terrible" about the sluggish life of the townsfolk, who no longer distinguish between good and evil.
From 1905 to 19011 in a number of articles and essays, Korolenko criticizes the actions of the government. Among them is "Sorochinskaya tragedy" - the writer's response to accusations of incitement to the murder of the policeman Filonov, who massacred the Sorochinsk peasants. The book "Everyday Phenomenon", the essay "In a Calmed Village" - about the government's reaction to the revolution of 1905.
Korolenko worked on the book "The History of My Contemporary" from 1902 until his death. The last chapters on the return from the Yakut exile were written several days before his death. The book is an attempt to understand and analyze the historical and social events that the writer witnessed. In the "contemporary" he himself is guessed, the life path of Korolenko is described from childhood to his becoming as a writer. Many plots and heroes of Korolenko's stories are borrowed from his biography.
Prose writer, publicist
Born July 15, 1853 in Zhitomir in the family of a district judge. Mother is the daughter of a Polish landowner. He spent his childhood in Zhitomir, then in Rivne, where he graduated from high school in 1871.
1871 - 74 - studies at the St. Petersburg Institute of Technology.
1874 - 76 - studies at the Petrovsk Agricultural Academy.
1876 - expelled from the academy for participation in student unrest, exiled to the Vologda province, but returned on the way and settled under police supervision in Kronstadt.
1877 - entered the St. Petersburg Mining Institute.
1879 - Korolenko was arrested on suspicion of having connections with revolutionary leaders. Until 1881 he was in prison and exile.
Korolenko begins his literary activity back in the late 70s, but he was not noticed by the large public. His first story, Episodes from the Life of a Seeker, was published in 1879. After 5 years of silence, interrupted only by small essays and correspondence, Korolenko made his debut for the second time in Russkaya Mysl in 1885 with the story The Dream of Makar.
1881-1884 - for refusing to take the oath to Alexander III, he was exiled to the Yakutsk region.
1885-96 - lives under police supervision in Nizhny Novgorod, where he actively participates in the liberal opposition, collaborates in the liberal periodicals Russkie Vedomosti, Severny Vestnik, Nizhegorodskie Vedomosti. At the same time, Korolenko writes works of art: "The Blind Musician" (1887), "At Night" (1888), "In a Bad Society", "The River Plays" (1891), etc.
1886 - Korolenko's first book "Essays and Stories" is published.
1893 - Korolenko's second book is published.
1894 - Korolenko visits England and America. He expressed part of his impressions in the story "Without a Language"
1896 - moved to St. Petersburg.
1895-1904 - Korolenko - one of the official publishers of the populist magazine "Russian Bogatstvo".
1900 - The Academy of Sciences elects Korolenko as an honorary academician in the category of fine literature. In 1902, together with A.P. Chekhov, Korolenko renounced the title in protest against the illegal cancellation of the elections of M.Gorky to the Academy.
Since 1900, Korolenko has been living in Poltava.
1903 - Korolenko's third book is published.
1904-1917 - Korolenko heads the magazine " Russian wealth". Here are published his essays" In a hungry year "(1892)," Pavlovsk essays "(1890), articles" Sorochinskaya tragedy "(1907)," Everyday phenomenon "(1910) and many others. In total, Korolenko is the author about 700 articles, correspondence, essays, notes.
1906 - Korolenko begins to publish in separate chapters the most extensive of his works: the autobiographical History of My Contemporary.
1914 - First World War finds Korolenko in France. The attitude towards her is reflected in the story "Prisoners" (1917). In the article "War, Fatherland and Humanity" (1917) Korolenko speaks out for the continuation of the war.
On the February revolution 1917 Korolenko responds with the article "The Fall of the Tsarist Power. (Speech common people on the events in Russia) ". In it Korolenko indicates that" there is no longer a place for the tsarist power "in future Russia, and Constituent Assembly like once Zemsky Cathedral, "will establish the future form of government for the Russian state", emphasizes that "a lot of wisdom is needed to end disagreements within the country, dangerous disputes about power and civil strife", "while the homeland is threatened by the invasion and death of his young freedom"
Calling himself a non-party socialist, Korolenko does not share the ideas of the Bolsheviks and the principles of the proletarian dictatorship. He calls for "putting the interests of the entire population above the party struggle." In the article "The Triumph of the Winners" Korolenko, referring to A.V. Lunacharsky, writes: "You are celebrating victory, but this victory is disastrous for the part of the people who won with you, disastrous, perhaps, for the entire Russian people as a whole," because " a power based on a false idea is doomed to perish from its own arbitrariness "(Russkiye Vedomosti, 1917, December 3).
1917 - deputies from the People's Socialist Party at a congress of peasants held in Poltava on April 17 proposed Korolenko to nominate him as a deputy to the Constituent Assembly, he refuses, citing ill health. On November 22, Korolenko was elected Honorary Chairman of the Poltava Committee of the Political Red Cross.
During the occupation of Poltava by the troops of the Ukrainian Central Rada and A.I.Denikin, Korolenko opposed terror and revenge.
In 1919-21, unable to appear in print, Korolenko addressed a series of letters to Lunacharsky, Kh.G. Rakovsky, the main content of which was a protest against the extrajudicial reprisals of the Cheka.
Major works:
Stories from the "Siberian" cycle:
"Wonderful" (1880, distributed in copies, publ. 1905)
"The Assassin", "Dream of Makar", "Sokolinets" (all - 1885), "On the Way" (1888, 2nd ed. 1914)
"At-Davan" (1885, 2nd ed. 1892)
"Marusina Zaimka" (1889, publ. 1899)
"Lights" (1901)
Stories:
"In a Bad Society" (1885)
The Forest is Noisy (1886)
The River Plays (1892)
"Without a tongue" (1894)
"Not terrible" (1903), etc.
The story "The Blind Musician" (1886, 2nd ed. 1898).
Essays, including:
"In the wilderness" (1890, 2nd ed. 1914)
"Pavlovsk Essays" (1890)
"In a hungry year" (1892-93)
"At the Cossacks" (1901)
"Ours on the Danube" (1909)
Journalism, including:
"Multan Sacrifice" (cycle of essays, articles and notes, 1895-98)
Celebrity at the End of the Century (1898, Dreyfus Affair)
Vladimir Korolenko was born on July 15, 1853 in the Ukrainian city of Zhitomir. His grandfather, Afanasy Yakovlevich, had Cossack roots. Korolenko's maternal ancestors were gentry, and future writer since childhood spoke in Polish as in your own. His father served as a county judge and was distinguished by a stern, reserved character, but at the same time he had high moral qualities, was famous for his honesty and selflessness. Galaktion Afanasyevich seriously influenced the ideas and mindset of his son, although later the writer said that there was "no inner closeness" between them. Nevertheless, Korolenko repeatedly returned to the image of his father in his works: the story "In a Bad Society" (1885), the autobiography "The Story of My Contemporary" (1905-1921).
In his younger years, Korolenko lived in small towns where Polish, Russian-Ukrainian and Jewish traditions were closely intertwined. International flavor, a mixture of blood, education, culture different nations- all this was reflected in the writer's work, determined his artistic style. Korolenko became a humanist artist who condemned ethnic strife and all kinds of intolerance in society. The influence of the mother, Evelina Iosifovna, a zealous Catholic, an emotional and impressionable woman, also had an effect.
Galaktion Afanasyevich died in 1868, and the Korolenko family began to live in poverty. After graduating from the gymnasium course in Rovno, in 1871, Vladimir entered the Technological Institute of St. Petersburg, but the need forced him to quit his studies and get a job as a proofreader. Not without the help of his mother, in 1872, Korolenko moved to Moscow, where he became a fellow at the Petrovsko-Razumov Agricultural Academy. It was then that he began to get carried away with the ideas of populism. In 1876, for filing a petition on behalf of 79 students to abolish the Cerberus order at the Academy, Korolenko was expelled and sent to Kronstadt.
Last unsuccessful attempt to get higher education took place in 1877: he was enrolled in the St. Petersburg Mining Institute, but did not study there for two years. Korolenko was arrested on a denunciation, accused of revolutionary activity and again expelled from the capital - to the city of Glazov. (True, even before his arrest, in 1879, the young man still managed to make his debut as a writer, having published the short story Episodes from the Life of a Seeker in the Slovo magazine).
Korolenko spent the next six years in prisons and exile: Berezovskie repairs, Vyatka, Vyshny Volochek, Amginskaya Sloboda. He continues to write a lot: it was only in 1880 that he created the stories "Fake City", "Yashka", "Wonderful". The latter was written in the Vyshnevolotsk political prison, under the impression of meeting the revolutionary girl Evelina Ulanovskaya. The manuscript was secretly released. In 1893, the story was published in New York and London (in illegal Russian newspapers), and in Russia it was published under the title "Business Trip" only in 1905.
From 1881 to 1884, Korolenko lived in Yakutia, where he was exiled for refusing to swear allegiance to Emperor Alexander III, who ascended the throne. Impressed by the harsh environment, endured hardships, surrounding poverty, but inspired by Siberian nature, the writer conceived and created a series of brilliant short stories, which were later published in the capital's magazines: "The Murderer" (1882), "Dream Makar" (1883), "Sokolinets" (1885), Fyodor Homeless (1885), etc. The success of the story "Dream of Makar" was so great that the young prose writer was immediately assigned one of the first places in the ranks of Russian literature of that time.
With the imperial permission of the emperor, in 1885 he settled in Nizhny Novgorod. Here Korolenko marries Evdokia Ivanovskaya, a Russian revolutionary and populist, who also went through arrests and exile. In 1886 and 1888, their daughters Sophia and Natalya were born.
WITH Nizhny Novgorod connected with the most fruitful period in the life of the writer, which lasted 11 years. His Siberian stories were published as a separate book in 1886, and three years later a second collection was published, consisting of works from the Volga period. Stories and short stories, literary notes and memories come out from under his pen one after another - the textbook Children of the Underground (1885), the study The Blind Musician (1886), which became a true triumph of the writer and survived fifteen editions only during Korolenko's lifetime, “Behind the Icon” (1887) , "Circassian" (1888), "At Night" (1888), "Birds of Heaven" (1889), ethnographic "Pavlovsk Essays" (1890), "The River Plays" (1891) and others. He manifests himself as a true humanist, expressing in almost every work anxiety about the fate of the Russian people. In every person he tried to see, open the most the best sides, cleanse it of everyday dirt.
In the Nizhny Novgorod province, Korolenko is also active in social activities, opposes the arbitrariness of the authorities, organizes free canteens for the hungry (he shares his impressions in numerous essays published in 1893 in a special edition under common name"In a hungry year"). Among the most notable episodes of this period in Korolenko's life is the "case of the Votyaks": thanks to the protection of the writer, Udmurt peasants were saved from hard labor, falsely accused of ritual killings... He published a series of high-profile articles "The Multan Sacrifice".
In the 1890s, Korolenko traveled across the Crimea and the Caucasus, and made a voyage across America. Impressed by what he saw, in 1895 he created an allegory story "Without a Language" (1895), describing the life of a Ukrainian émigré. The prose writer gains recognition abroad, his stories are published in several languages. From 1895 to 1900, Korolenko lived in St. Petersburg, where he worked as editor and publisher of the magazine "Russian wealth". Here are published his brilliant short stories "Marusina Zaimka" (1899) and "Moment" (1900).
He continued to openly oppose the lawlessness of the authorities, against death penalty, against the "white" and "red" terror, denounced the activities of military-field courts, condemned food appropriation and dispossession. Korolenko gave great importance journalism, no less important in his work than fiction. The authority of the writer was colossal, in fact, at that time he became a real symbol of Russian democratic literature.
In 1900, he was one of the first to be elected an honorary academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, together with A.P. Chekhov and L.N. Tolstoy. But two years later, Korolenko declared a written protest in connection with the exclusion of Maxim Gorky from the ranks of academicians and resigned his title.
In 1900, Vladimir Korolenko, due to deteriorating health, moved to Poltava, where he continued to write numerous publicistic articles and essays. He was very painful about what was happening in the country. political events, reacted sharply to every socially significant event, any interethnic or social conflict.
Korolenko hated autocracy and vehemently condemned the actions of the tsarist regime aimed at suppressing revolutionary movement 1905 year. In 1911-1913 he actively opposed chauvinists and reactionaries who fanned loud trial over the Jew Menachem Mendel Beilis, accused of the murder of a 12-year-old boy. At the same time, he published no less than ten articles exposing the lies and falsifications organized by the government and the Black Hundreds. Among them are “Everyday Phenomenon”, “The Beilis Case”, “In a Calmed Village”, “Features of Military Justice”.
Korolenko was very ambiguous about the October Revolution of 1917. Calling himself a "non-party socialist", he did not share the Bolshevik ideas and did not approve of the methods by which the construction of socialism was carried out. At the same time, the writer spoke out against the counter-revolutionaries, condemning the pogroms, executions, robberies and atrocities they committed. Contemporaries called him "a moral genius", "the conscience of Russia."
Korolenko was a humanist and a democrat in everything, did not accept violence in any form and always stood up for the protection of the individual, the rights of the oppressed. His activities had a significant impact on the most diverse strata of Russian society at that time. In 1920 he wrote six letters to A.V. Lunacharsky. The appeals remained without an official response, but their author received the following assessment from the People's Commissar of Education - "beautiful Don Quixote."
In Poltava, Korolenko works a lot, despite his progressive heart disease, establishes colonies for homeless children, organizes food collection for the children of Petrograd and Moscow, and is elected honorary chairman of the All-Russian Committee for Aid the Hungry. V last years life Korolenko worked on a voluminous epochal autobiography "The History of My Contemporary", which summed up his social and artistic activities, at the same time characterizing a significant period of Russian history. This work was created over 15 years, but, unfortunately, it remained unfinished.
Vladimir Galaktionovich Korolenko died on February 25, 1921 from a relapse of brain inflammation. Buried in Poltava, at the Old Cemetery.
Korolenko and the power of his creativity
Due to the romantic mindset of the author, the story poured into, for real, romantic style, each word of which flows very calmly and saturates the action with a variety of strong accents. The story takes place in an environment where human consciousness is clouded and does not fully realize what is freedom, what is love, what is happiness. Thieves, beggars crazy people- all these garbage live in the ruins of the old castle and do not go beyond its limits. The author insisted that society, shown through "lost" people, does not really need pity and is "bad."
Having a penchant for melancholy or excessive sentimentality, he would dispose of his material differently and make the reader experience the tragedy of the rejected. However, this is not happening and should not be. The author's intentions to show people who are lying, dirty in their souls, are clothed in a terrible form. The inhabitants of the castle drink, steal, and debauchery. However, not everything in the soul of these people is rotten. Callousness has its own soft crust. Tiburtsy loves his daughter, and wants to protect her from the encroachments of the system in which he was raised and lives. The girl's name is Marusya, she is innocent as a tear. The author wrote in it the image of a sufferer, from whom the environment sucks all the vitality, all the beauty of that immaculate youth that grew up in a girl and continues to grow. As a result of the story, she dies, and her death is written truly touching, so that tears involuntarily welling up in your eyes and you feel the first truly strong loss.
Conscience and feelings awaken in the reader, as in the characters. Looking at the scene of this story, one involuntarily recalls the legend "The Forest is Noisy", which is written almost in a similar fabulous manner. It talks about how an offended commoner kills a Pan. However, despite such a banal plot outline, the details of the story are described with great subtlety and flair. Great skill has been put into the plot. The general physiognomy of the forest, the personality of each individual tree is perfectly shown. The forest in the description comes to life and becomes a living participant in the unfolding events.
Korolenko is a poet with purely melancholic character traits. His soul threads are agitated at the sight of touching pictures of everyday life, at the sight of a blossoming, vibrant nature. Korolenko also owns "The Blind Musician" (1887), "At Night" (1888) and a story from Jewish life: "Yom-Kinur". In The Blind Musician, the author, with great skill and skill, gave psychological picture the development of a decaying society. Here the scientific is intertwined with art and creates a strange symbiosis.
The story "Night" can be called truly fragrant. The conversations of children about how children are born are conveyed with amazing naivety. These childhood thoughts and arguments are read so sincerely because they were written by a child who remained faithful to his childish naivety to the very late years... He always knew that as a child he is a child who is still surprised and asks many questions, but very important issues... However, there are adults in the story as well. There is a young doctor who answers this question simply, without any bends to the side. He says that this is just a physiological act and nothing more. There is nothing abstrusely philosophical here, there is nothing and cannot be. But for another character, who lost his spouse due to this act, everything seems much more complicated and voluminous.
We perfectly see how the author enjoys describing situations as examples of what is in the world. He looks at human life as the greatest and wonderful secret... One of best stories Korolenko, which speaks of Siberia, is "From the Notes of a Siberian Tourist." The author reveals in the story a tremendous degree of humanity and understanding. Despite everything, he loves the world in which he lives. Here the killer's story is told with great humanism and sincerity. He has an unusual mental disposition. However, the author prepares a test for him, in which the hero is torn, unable to understand and choose a side to join. The same choice between two beginnings lies at the heart of little story"V easter night". The author does not want and does not intend to condemn the principle that allows criminals to escape from captivity. In his own manner, he simply tells a story that supposedly happened, and tells it as if it were some kind of miracle, which has no analogues in the world.
Soon after his relocation to the Volga, Korolenko wrote the story "The River Plays", in which the heroes conduct passionate debates about their faith and choice. life path... In the story, the author emphasizes the following words: “I took away heavy, not joyful impressions from the shores of the Holy Lake, from the invisible, but passionately sought after by the people of the city ... As if in a stuffy crypt, in the dim light of a dying lamp sleepless night, listening to how somewhere behind the wall someone reads in a measured voice the prayers for the dead over a folk thought that has fallen asleep forever. "
Korolenko, for all his naivety, believes that popular thought has not yet lost its strength and voice, and can sound at any moment as it sounded before. His other story, from the same Volga life "On solar eclipse”- ends with the fact that people come to watch the great eclipse of the sun, and gradually they are imbued with such strong surprise that they begin to enthusiastically praise science and philosophize about it, although they themselves had previously treated with contempt all the philosophizing of others.
Korolenko believed in a better future all his life. His humanism and hope for human correction reached the cosmic horizons. He dreamed of making a person better. I dreamed of guiding him on the true path, showing the road, the path to correction. He did everything for a person to understand what he was born for, so that he understood that his life should not be wasted on meaningless moralizing or useless burning, but spent wisely. With the belief that rebirth is possible, and everything depends on the person himself. He, as a writer looking to the future, does not get disappointed or whine. He knows that the fate of a person is always in a state of variation. That he always prefers life on the edge, and that everyone has at least a drop of sin in their souls. For him, life is one big ideal, high boundaries and endless boundaries.
In the mid-1890s, Korolenko reached the peak of his creativity. This is the culmination of his life, and with it his work. During this period, he wrote many works and beautiful sketches, as well as sketches, including "Sovereign Coachmen", "Frost" and others.
In 1906, the author begins to publish his largest, most extensive work, autobiographical tale"The history of my contemporary". In it, the author tried to give an account of his life. Show your life through the character. In this work, he deliberately makes sacrifices, he puts on the chopping block the beauty of the syllable and the purity of the descriptions in order to bring the narrative under realistic canons, under the autobiographical style. And he succeeds. You can feel the truth and its power. In this two-volume book, Korolenko talks about his young years of life, how he grew up and got stronger as a person. How his views were born, and his soul was tempered.
Korolenko is an excellent writer and knows how to write about others. He penned the memoirs of the great writers Mikhailovsky, Chekhov, Uspensky. He united all these memories under the general name "The Departed". Among these essays, it is worth highlighting about Uspensky, written with all expressive skill, with all the flavor and power of the artistic word.
In addition to the famous talented writer, Korolenko also reveals himself as a genius of journalism. He writes numerous magazine and newspaper articles in which he speaks about the news of the day, reveals the relevance of modern public life and his problems. Wherever he worked, he was everywhere in the center of public opinion and consciousness. He kept the attention of people with his strength, with his mind suppressed negative moments in them and told them how to live. But most importantly, they listened to him.
In such works as "The Hungry Year" and "Everyday Phenomenon", he acted as an ardent critic of public life. Reading them, we see strong man who knows what and how to fight for. He is a knight of the pen, in him the elegance of talent meets genuine education.
And finally, it is worth noting that Korolenko is not a party writer like Mayakovsky. His work is entirely based on humanism, beauty and truth of the word. He is a genius in his field and this is felt by everyone who at least once comes into contact with his work.
Korolenko's works have always been of great interest and are in constant demand. His books have withstood more than one reprint. Such famous books as: "The Blind Musician", "Without a Language", "The History of My Contemporary" have gone through more than one reprint, and are records in literary heritage the author. His small stories diverged and now are sold in tens of thousands of copies. One of the most complete bibliographies of Korolenko is given in the book by N.D. Shakhovskoy “Vladimir Galaktionovich Korolenko. Experience of biographical characterization ".
An outstanding writer and public figure, Vladimir Korolenko, left behind great amount literary works, most of from which they diverge with great success to this day. Our generation also needs his legacy, for the principles that the author laid down in his works still live on. Eternal questions always remain eternal. And Korolenko understood this perfectly.
Please note that the biography of Vladimir Galaktionovich Korolenko presents the most basic moments from life. Some minor life events may be overlooked in this biography.