At that time, most Soviet writers praised the ruler of the USSR to the skies.
In such a period of time, a very bold poem is created by the hand of Osip Mandelstam, which he wrote after Osip Emilievich became an eyewitness to the terrible Crimean famine.
We live under us without feeling the country ..
We live, not feeling the country under us,
Our speeches are not heard for ten steps,
And where is enough for half a conversation,
They will remember the Kremlin mountaineer there.
His thick fingers, like worms, are fat,
And the words, like pood weights, are true,
Cockroaches are laughing
And his bootlegs shine.
And around him is a rabble of thin-necked leaders,
He plays with the services of demihumans.
Who whistles, who meows, who whimpers,
He alone babachet and pokes,
Like a horseshoe, he gives a decree after a decree:
Who in the groin, who in the forehead, who in the eyebrow, who in the eye.
Whatever execution he has is raspberries,
And the broad chest of an Ossetian.
Osip Mandelstam. November, 1933.
The meaning of the words in the poem:
Highlander - Stalin.
Raspberry is a word in criminal jargon in memory of the fact that Stalin was part of the underworld in his youth when he bore the pseudonym "Koba".
Ossetian - Stalin. Stalin was from the city of Gori near South Ossetia.
The poem was also written down a second time, but only by the hand of the detective of the 4th Department of the Secret Political Department of the OGPU N.Kh. Shivarov, who interrogated the poet in prison.
Mandelstam and Pasternak:
“Somehow, walking along the streets, they wandered into some deserted outskirts of the city in the Tversky-Yamsky region, Pasternak remembered the creak of dray carts as a sound background. Here Mandelstam read to him about the Kremlin highlander. After listening, Pasternak said: “The fact that you read to me, has nothing to do with literature, poetry. This is not a literary fact, but an act of suicide, which I do not approve of and in which I do not want to take part. You have not read anything to me, I have not heard anything, and I ask you not to read them to no one else."
Osip Mandelstam did not hide his authorship, and after his arrest he prepared to be shot. The author was sent into exile in Cherdyn, and then allowed to settle in Voronezh. On the night of May 1-2, 1938, he was arrested again and sent to the Dallag camp, died on the way in December in the Vladperpunkt transit camp, and the Soviet authorities left Mandelstam's body to lie unburied until spring.
Mandelstam's poetry in the case file is called "counter-revolutionary libel against the leader of the Communist Party and the Soviet country", was the main point of the charge, Mandelstam was convicted under Article 58.10
A copy of the poem, written down in prison by the hand of Osip Mandelstam, was kept in the archives of the KGB of the USSR until the spring of 1989. In connection with perestroika, the autograph was transferred to the Commission of the Union of Writers of the USSR on the literary heritage of Osip Mandelstam. In April 1989, the chairman of the commission, Robert Rozhdestvensky, gave the document to the RGALI, the protocol of the interrogation of Mandelstam by detective Shivarov is now stored in the Central Archive of the FSB of the Russian Federation, as part of the Investigation File R-33487.
The epigram poem “We live without feeling the country under us” played a fatal role in the fate of Osip Mandelstam, not without reason, the poet’s friend Pasternak called him suicide. Of course, in 1933 there was no question of publishing the epigram, but it was enough to lament poems to a dozen or so friends and not refuse authorship.
Some interesting facts about the fate of the poem. Pasternak not only called the poems suicide, but also criticized them:
What you read to me has nothing to do with literature, poetry. This is not a literary fact, but the fact of suicide, which I do not approve of and in which I do not want to take part.
It is unlikely that it was a fear of becoming involved in the work of Mandelstam, rather, it was a warning to a comrade and his own opinion about the epigram. True, there is no literary depth in the lines, but there is a boldness that no one else has dared to. I note that it was not courage for the sake of courage, but a vision of the situation in the country through the eyes of a poet and the strength to say it on paper.
Whatever the courage of the poet, his relatives forced him to immediately destroy the manuscript of the poem, so it was immediately stored in only a few heads. Who from this circle of close heads wrote the denunciation, did not become known.
The shadows began to thicken quickly. First there were mystical omens. In January 1934, at the funeral of the poet Andrei Bely, the coffin lid accidentally fell on Mandelstam. Osip just smiled.
I'm ready for death.
Then came the turn of real events. Mandelstam was arrested in May 1934, and during interrogation he confesses everything and indicates the circle of people to whom he read the Highlander. For some unknown reason, Pasternak is not on the list, although he was one of the first to hear the epigram. Somewhat later, the poet told his wife that he was terribly frightened. In the cell, he even tried to open the veins, but failed.
Things were heading towards an inevitable execution, but Bukharin, who sympathized with Mandelstam, intervened. By the way, except for Bukharin, no one came to the defense of the poet. Demyan Bedny and Pasternak remained on the sidelines. It is not surprising, because execution threatened not only the author of the lines, but also everyone who heard them, but did not inform (one is excluded, since someone informed).
It is not known what influenced Stalin's decision, but Mandelstam was not shot, moreover, he was immediately sent not to a camp, but to exile. Stalin's patience was long. Only three years later, after the expiration of the exile, Mandelstam returned and was arrested again. The case is short, the poet is sent by stage to the Far East, where he dies of typhus. This is the official version of the death of the author of The Kremlin Highlander. The creator was buried by the boldness of his creation.
Fate Mandelstam confirmed his own lines:
Whatever execution he has is raspberry.
Indeed, Stalin played with the poet for a long time, first sending him into exile, and after a grandmaster pause, to the camp.
Such is the history of this poem, I see no point in making a deep analysis of the lines of which. There are no undercurrents and hidden text in the epigram. In poetry, Mandelstam describes how he sees our country and its leader.
We live, not feeling the country under us,
Our speeches are not heard for ten steps,
And where is enough for half a conversation,
They will remember the Kremlin mountaineer there.
His thick fingers, like worms, are fat,
And the words, like pood weights, are true,
Cockroaches are laughing mustaches,
And his bootlegs shine.
And around him is a rabble of thin-necked leaders,
He plays with the services of demihumans.
Who whistles, who meows, who whimpers,
He alone babachet and pokes,
Yesterday I read in a friendly blog that December 27, 1938 is the day of the death of Osip Mandelstam. 70 years have passed ... I could not pass by this bitter anniversary. One of my favorite poets...
For the explosive valor of the coming centuries,
For the high tribe of people
I lost the cup at the feast of the fathers,
And fun, and his honor.
A wolfhound age throws itself on my shoulders,
But I'm not a wolf by my blood,
Stuff me better, like a hat, in a sleeve
Hot fur coat of the Siberian steppes.
So as not to see a coward or a flimsy filth,
No bloody blood in the wheel
So that blue foxes shine all night
Me in my primeval beauty,
Take me to the night where the Yenisei flows
And the pine reaches the star
Because I am not a wolf by my blood,
And only an equal will kill me.
The future poet was born in 1891 in Warsaw, but since 1897 he lived in St. Petersburg. There, in 1910, he made his literary debut. He was fond of symbolism, acmeism. He wrote poetry, published articles on literary topics. From 1918 he lived in Moscow, then in St. Petersburg, then in Tiflis. Nikolai Chukovsky wrote: "... he never had not only no property, but also a permanent settled place - he led a wandering lifestyle, ... I understood his most striking feature - lifelessness. He was a man who did not create any life and living outside of any way. In the 1920s, Mandelstam published poetry collections and did a lot of translations. He was fluent in French, German and English. When the open persecution of the poet began in the 1930s and it became more and more difficult to print, translation remained the outlet where he could save himself.
In the autumn of 1933, Mandelstam wrote the poem "We live without feeling the country under us ...", for which he was arrested in May 1934.
We live, not feeling the country under us,
Our speeches are not heard for ten steps,
And where is enough for half a conversation,
They will remember the Kremlin mountaineer there.
His thick fingers, like worms, are fat,
And the words, like pood weights, are true,
Cockroaches laughing eyes
And his bootlegs shine.
And around him is a rabble of thin-necked leaders,
He plays with the services of demihumans.
Who whistles, who meows, who whimpers,
He only babachet and pokes.
Like a horseshoe, gives a decree for a decree -
Who in the groin, who in the forehead, who in the eyebrow, who in the eye.
Whatever his punishment is raspberry
And the broad chest of an Ossetian.
November 1933
Only Bukharin's defense softened the sentence - they sent him to Cherdyn-on-Kama, where the poet stayed for two weeks, fell ill, and ended up in the hospital. He was sent to Voronezh, where he worked in newspapers and magazines, on the radio. After the end of the exile, he lived in Kalinin. Then another arrest. Sentence - 5 years in camps for counter-revolutionary activities. Stage was sent to the Far East. In a transit camp on the Second River (now within the boundaries of Vladivostok), on December 27, 1938, Osip Mandelstam died in a hospital barracks.
V. Shklovsky wrote about Mandelstam: "He was a man ... strange ... difficult ... touching ... and brilliant!"
The poet Alexander Galich wrote beautifully about the arrest ...
"... in the apartment where he lived, there were he, Nadezhda Yakovlevna (wife) and Anna Andreevna Akhmatova, who came to visit him from Leningrad. And so they all sat together until the morning, and while this search was going on , behind the wall, also until morning, at their neighbor, Kirsanov, who knew nothing about the search, they played records with the ukulele that was fashionable at that time ... "
"And only light,
What's in the starry, prickly lie,
And life will flicker
Theatrical hood with foam,
And no one to speak
From the camp of the dark street ... "
Mandelstam
All night long a guitar cooed behind the wall,
Neighbor-rogue twisted the anniversary,
And two witnesses, like two orderlies,
Yawning, they languished at the black doors.
And fat fingers, with unhurried care,
They were busy with their work,
And the two queens watched in silence,
As fingers dug in paper bast,
How boldly they leafed through a book after a book,
And the king himself - all sideways, but skipping,
So as not to give out with a glance - is it not the right page,
So as not to see eyeless faces nearby!
And the fingers were looking for sedition, sedition ...
And there, behind the wall, everyone was chasing Ramona:
"Ramona, what a space around, look,
Ramona, and in the whole world we are alone."
"... And life will flash
Theatrical hood with foam ... "
And watching the fingers rummage in the upholstery,
Well you were at ease, he thought, at ease!
Swallow your Jacobin booze!
Not vinegar yet, but no longer wine.
Nutcracker-starling, simpleton-Emelya,
Why did you get involved in someone else's hangover?!
What did you spend your gold on?!
And witnesses watched him bored...
And two queens mediocre smoked
And they also executed themselves and reproached -
For laziness, for a careless nod at the station,
For everything that he was not told in a hurry ...
And the fingers dug, and the paper was torn ...
And sang behind the wall tenor-poor guy:
"Ramona, my love, my dreams,
Ramona, everywhere and everywhere only you..."
"... And only light,
What is in the stellar, prickly lie ... "
Along the black street, behind the black raven,
Behind this carriage, where the windows are crossed,
I will rush about in honorary patrol,
Until, exhausted, I collapse in a layer!
But the word remains, the word remains!
Not by the word, but fatigue comes to the heart,
And if you want, if you don't want, get off the carousel,
And like it or not - the end of the odyssey!
But we will not be rushed by sails to Ithaca:
In our century, they are transported to Ithaca by stage,
They carry Odysseus in a calf carriage,
Where there is only happiness, that there is no chase!
Where, after drinking "prudence", for the amusement of the carriage,
Blatar-Odessa sings "Ramon":
"Ramona, do you hear the gentle call of the wind,
Ramona, it's a song of love without words..."
"... And there is no one, no one,
No one to say
From the camp of the dark street ... "
We live under us without feeling the country ..
In the 1930s, the personality cult of Joseph Stalin was very strongly developed in Soviet Russia, at that time most Soviet writers praised the ruler of the USSR to the skies.
In such a period of time, a very bold poem is created by the hand of Osip Mandelstam, which he wrote after Osip Emilievich became an eyewitness to the terrible Crimean famine.
We live under us without feeling the country ..
We live, not feeling the country under us,
Our speeches are not heard for ten steps,
And where is enough for half a conversation,
They will remember the Kremlin mountaineer there.
His thick fingers, like worms, are fat,
And the words, like pood weights, are true,
Cockroaches are laughing
And his bootlegs shine.
And around him is a rabble of thin-necked leaders,
He plays with the services of demihumans.
Who whistles, who meows, who whimpers,
He alone babachet and pokes,
Like a horseshoe, he gives a decree after a decree:
Who in the groin, who in the forehead, who in the eyebrow, who in the eye.
Whatever execution he has is raspberries,
And the broad chest of an Ossetian.
Osip Mandelstam. November, 1933.
The meaning of the words in the poem:
Highlander - Stalin.
Raspberry is a word in criminal jargon in memory of the fact that Stalin was part of the underworld in his youth when he bore the pseudonym "Koba".
Ossetian - Stalin. Stalin was from the city of Gori near South Ossetia.
The poem was also written down a second time, but only by the hand of the detective of the 4th Department of the Secret Political Department of the OGPU N.Kh. Shivarov, who interrogated the poet in prison.
Mandelstam and Pasternak:
“Somehow, walking along the streets, they wandered into some deserted outskirts of the city in the Tversky-Yamsky region, Pasternak remembered the creak of dray carts as a sound background. Here Mandelstam read to him about the Kremlin highlander. After listening, Pasternak said: “The fact that you read to me, has nothing to do with literature, poetry. This is not a literary fact, but an act of suicide, which I do not approve of and in which I do not want to take part. You have not read anything to me, I have not heard anything, and I ask you not to read them to no one else."
Osip Mandelstam did not hide his authorship, and after his arrest he prepared to be shot. The author was sent into exile in Cherdyn, and then allowed to settle in Voronezh. On the night of May 1-2, 1938, he was arrested again and sent to the Dallag camp, died on the way in December in the Vladperpunkt transit camp, and the Soviet authorities left Mandelstam's body to lie unburied until spring.
Mandelstam's poetry in the case file is called "counter-revolutionary libel against the leader of the Communist Party and the Soviet country", was the main point of the charge, Mandelstam was convicted under Article 58.10
A copy of the poem, written down in prison by the hand of Osip Mandelstam, was kept in the archives of the KGB of the USSR until the spring of 1989. In connection with perestroika, the autograph was transferred to the Commission of the Union of Writers of the USSR on the literary heritage of Osip Mandelstam. In April 1989, the chairman of the commission, Robert Rozhdestvensky, gave the document to the RGALI, the protocol of the interrogation of Mandelstam by detective Shivarov is now stored in the Central Archive of the FSB of the Russian Federation, as part of the Investigation File R-33487.